Sylvia Park
A view over the main carparking and length of the centre, with the cinemas and railway station at the right rear.
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| Location | Mount Wellington, Auckland |
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| Address | Mount Wellington Highway |
| Opening date | 10 June 2006 |
| Owner | Kiwi Property Group |
| No. of stores and services | >200 |
| Total retail floor area | 71,000 m² |
| No. of floors | 2 |
| Parking | >4000 spaces |
| Website | www.sylviapark.org |
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 called Sylvia Park (the centre takes its name from the area, not vice versa, but Sylvia Park is not officially a suburb). The area is located adjacent to two major interchanges of the Auckland Southern Motorway – the South Eastern Highway (which passes directly above the shopping centre on a viaduct) and Mount Wellington Highway.
Land and store space in the Sylvia Park development is let out to a wide variety of major retailers, one cinema complex and two supermarkets. In addition, the centre has franchises of all major New Zealand banks and a wide variety of other retailers. The centre employs approximately 2,500 staff of which only four are security guards and was drawing about 12,000 shoppers at a time during the weekends of the 2007 winter months.
In a rating of New Zealand shopping centres by a retail expert group in 2008, Sylvia Park received four stars, the maximum rating, based on the criteria of amount of shopping area, economic performance, amenity and appeal as well as future growth prospects. Especially praised were the wide catchment of shoppers and the motorway accessibility.
The name Sylvia Park is from the large country house/stud farm built there in the late 19th century. It was the country residence of Sir Maurice O'Rorke, one of the first Speakers of the House. Sir Maurice used the land primarily for horse breeding. The house was demolished in the 1960s. From 1943 until 1992, Sylvia Park was the site of an extensive Army supply stores complex built by the American Forces during WWII. After the war these buildings were used by the NZ Defense Forces and a mix of industrial users. The buildings, which gradually became empty, were demolished for the shopping mall. Carbine Road is named after the racehorse Carbine who was foaled at Sylvia Park Stud.
The development is owned by Sylvia Park Business Centre Ltd (SPBCL), a subsidiary of Kiwi Property Group. The development is situated on 24 hectares of land, a large part of which is still to be developed as of the late 2000s. Kiwi Property acquired the land in two transactions in 1995.
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