Mark Gedye is the vice-president, Real Estate at Quattro Group. Alberts is a private commercial landlord in Auckland’s CBD.
This article was first published in NZ Herald on 10 November 2025.
A recent survey from Auckland CBD business owners paints a grim story describing our city centre as “lawless and unclean”. According to the report, 91% of respondents say rough sleeping and begging are affecting their trade; 72% believe the city is not in a good state to attract further investment.
Yes, parts of our city centre do look worn and weary, and everyone is tired of the scaffolding and road cones, but this is only a snapshot of the full story.
From where I’m standing, and particularly within Auckland’s Midtown at Alberts, I am seeing the opposite: fresh energy, growth, SMEs leasing office space and building their businesses.
To put it simply, we are seeing an influx of small and medium enterprises choosing to base themselves here, not despite the challenges, but because they believe in the promise of the area. And they’re actively making it happen.
Our first Midtown asset, The Formery, is exceeding leasing targets and on its way to being 100% occupied by early next year, bringing more than 100 new businesses calling Midtown home. These businesses are looking for premium office space within the pulse of the city, accessing connectivity and the vibrant business community Alberts provides. They’re finding it here and they’re thriving: collaborating with peers and networking, all within an agile environment that flexes and changes with businesses’ needs. It’s a very different picture from what was painted by the article.
That’s not to say that those concerns from local business owners are unfounded. Retail and hospitality have struggled in recent years, but as New Zealand moves out of its recession, we’re seeing people spend more money and more time in Midtown, especially as various developments are completed. That doesn’t look like the end of the CBD to me, it looks like evolution.
We’re seeing this within the SME micro-economies that make up Midtown. These are businesses committing to multi-year lease terms and are investing in the community and culture created in our assets that get their employees out of bed and into the office. They’re not hunkering down; they’re expanding and they’re using the city centre not just as a commuting point, but as a creative and growth asset.
We’re seeing this in our Clubs, which provide the ideal setting for business connection, meetings and events. With the completion of the Albert and Victoria St landscaping works, the influx of foot traffic is proof people are committing to the area in anticipation of the CRL shortening commuting time and enabling different activities. I’m confident we’ll see the city get busier in the evenings, even if poor weather keeps customers indoors rather than on bar and restaurant balconies. From the factory floor these things exist and are only growing in the mindset of SMEs.
When early-stage businesses thrive, they hire, they amplify foot traffic. This contributes not just to the economics of the area, but to the vitality of the area. If enough enterprises follow this path, you get tipping points, so if we only focus on the negative, we lose sight of the positive trajectories that are already under way.
The future of the city centre isn’t linear, we can’t just be limited to retail and traditional offices, it needs to be cosmopolitan and dynamic. SMEs want flexibility, they want a sense of place, they want the energy of a central location, but they also want value. Midtown offers that. And the fact businesses are choosing to establish their offices here tells us something powerful: they believe the city can and will regenerate.
This doesn’t mean the structural issues don’t exist. The homelessness issue, anti-social behaviour, maintenance of public spaces – these all demand urgent attention. The city’s leadership, council and central Government, must get the basics right if we want to fully leverage the public and private infrastructure that’s being developed. But the alarmist tone of “CBD is dead” is unhelpful and inaccurate.