Botany Town Centre is a large

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

and lifestyle centre located in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, New Zealand. It has more than 200 stores spread across three complexes, including restaurants and entertainment buildings such as cinemas. It is situated at the corner of Ti Rakau Drive and Chapel Road in the suburb of

East Tāmaki East Tāmaki is a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It is a largely industrial area adjacent to a rapidly growing population. Prior to the 1960s it was largely a dairy farming area. A landmark is Smales Mountain which in 2010 has the remains of ...

, and was opened in 2001. The centre has faced competition since the 2006 opening of the nearby

Sylvia Park Sylvia Park is a large business park and shopping centre in the Auckland suburb of Mount Wellington in New Zealand. Less commonly known, the area around the centre (which includes some residential and other commercial developments) is also ca ...

shopping centre in Mount Wellington, which was built as an enclosed

mall Mall commonly refers to a: * Shopping mall * Strip mall * Pedestrian street * Esplanade Mall or MALL may also refer to: Places Shopping complexes * The Mall (Sofia) (Tsarigradsko Mall), Sofia, Bulgaria * The Mall, Patna, Patna, Bihar, India * M ...

. However, Botany Town Centre sees its

town centre A town centre is the commerce, commercial or geographical centre or core area of a town. Town centres are traditionally associated with shopping or retail. They are also the centre of communications with major public transport hubs such as train ...

format as its strength, and considers that elements such as doctors' premises and a library make Botany more attractive.

History

In the years after it opened, Botany Town Centre won awards for its design. Meanwhile, Manukau City Council opened an "idealibrary" in the centre in 2004. In 2005, a Ministry for the Environment study of the town centre and surrounding suburbs found that the area lacked integrated land-use planning with an "incoherent mixture of conventional and medium-density housing." A planner said the "road-dominated environment to get to the nearby Botany Town Centre is not pedestrian friendly," while public transport had been "under-used and arguably inadequate in range and frequency of routes available" at the time. Others had criticised the centre for being a commercialised public space. In a 2008 rating of New Zealand shopping centres by a retail expert group, Botany Town Centre received three-and-a-half stars, just under the maximum rating of four stars, based on the criteria of amount of shopping area, economic performance, amenity and appeal as well as future growth prospects. On 2 May 2019, the first stage of a three-area redevelopment was opened. The redevelopment takes the centre's size to 62,700 square metres.

Transport

The mall is accessible via several high-frequency AT Metro bus services which depart from its bus interchange. During the day, buses on the 70 line run at least every 10 minutes towards

Pakuranga Pakuranga is an eastern suburb of Auckland, in northern New Zealand. Pakuranga covers a series of low ridges and previously swampy flats, now drained, that lie between the Pakuranga Creek and Tamaki River, two estuarial arms of the Hauraki Gul ...

, Panmure and the

city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

. Meanwhile, buses run every 15 minutes towards Howick and Highland Park on the 72 bus line, towards

Flat Bush Flat Bush (also known as Ormiston or Flatbush) is a southeastern suburb in the city of Auckland, New Zealand. It has recently become one of the city's largest new planned towns after being developed as a rural area of Auckland for several deca ...

and

Manukau Manukau (), or Manukau Central, is a suburb of South Auckland, New Zealand, centred on the Manukau City Centre business district. It is located 23 kilometres south of the Auckland Central Business District, west of the Southern Motorway, so ...

on the 35 bus line and towards

Ōtara Ōtara is a suburb of South Auckland, New Zealand (formerly Manukau City), situated 18 kilometres to the southeast of the Auckland CBD. Ōtara lies near the head of the Tamaki River (actually an arm of the Hauraki Gulf), which extends south tow ...

on the 31 bus line. Lower frequency services, usually every half hour, provide trips to Highbrook,

Bucklands Beach Bucklands Beach is a suburb east of Auckland's CBD in New Zealand. The suburb is in the Howick ward, one of the thirteen administrative divisions of Auckland Council. Demographics Bucklands Beach covers and had an estimated population of ...

Half Moon Bay Half Moon Bay is a coastal city in San Mateo County, California, United States, approximately south of San Francisco. Its population was 11,795 as of the 2020 census. Immediately at the north of Half Moon Bay is Pillar Point Harbor and the un ...

and

Mission Heights Mission Heights is an eastern suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, comprising Mission Heights North and Mission Heights South. It is located in the wider suburb of Flat Bush. Demographics Mission Heights covers and had an estimated population ...

. Bike racks are also provided at several locations throughout Botany Town Centre.

Future rapid transit integration

In 2018,

Auckland Transport Auckland Transport (AT) is the council-controlled organisation (CCO) of Auckland Council responsible for transport projects and services. It was established by section 38 of the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act 2009, and operates under ...

began planning rapid public transport between Botany and

Auckland Airport Auckland Airport is the largest and busiest airport in New Zealand, with over 21 million passengers in the year ended March 2019. The airport is located near Māngere, a residential suburb, and Airport Oaks, a service hub suburb south of the ...

. It is part of a wider programme to improve the transport system in

South Auckland South Auckland is an imprecisely defined urban area of Auckland, New Zealand, with a young population, a relatively large Polynesian and Māori demographic, and lower incomes than other parts of Auckland. The name ''South Auckland'', though not ...

. A busway station is planned for the town centre, as the terminus for the

Eastern Busway The Eastern Busway is a bus-only road running from the University of Queensland's St Lucia campus to Langlands Park busway station in Queensland, Australia. Development The Eastern Busway was built and opened in stages. The first section betw ...

rapid transit link to Panmure railway station. A busway connecting Botany to Auckland's central suburbs is due to be completed in 2025.

References

External links

Botany Town Centre official website
held in Auckland Libraries' heritage collections. {{Howick Local Board Area Shopping centres in the Auckland Region Buildings and structures in Auckland Shopping malls established in 2001

History

Transport

Future rapid transit integration

See also

References

External links