During another meeting today, the idea of an IT park in Kilbirnie makes sense. There’s that data pipe already heading out toward Miramar, and this could help rejuvenate the Kilbirnie area. There’s so much going for what I regard as my home ’burb. I understand ideas are currently being collected at committee level there, but I can certainly envisage new businesses springing up in the Kilbirnie area, which could become a home to new technologies and creativity. We already have a good recreation centre and library—which provide some balance to the public space. Bay Road and Onepu Road could be ideal places to sit back and meet people—if it were better geared for that.
I certainly feel it is far more than a place people pass through to get to the airport or out to the Lyall Bay retail park. Any thoughts?
eastern suburbs · internet · IT park · Kilbirnie · Miramar · rejuvenation · Rongotai · Wellington · Whanganui-a-Tara
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Tom · 2009/08/28 at 16:45
Unless you’re talking about hardware-level IT, involving manufacturing or similar industrial activity, why not just encourage IT startups in the CBD and Te Aro? That would maintain the compactness of the city, be close to transport hubs, and provide much more local amenity (cafes, bars, shops) for the workers than setting up from scratch in the suburbs. From my experience working in a “Silicon Welly” business, the ability to walk to meetings with clients, prospects and partners was invaluable, and I’ve always found “business parks” depressingly dull and isolated.
Admin comment by Jack Yan · 2009/08/29 at 00:45
Hi Tom, thanks for your feedback. My suggestion came from a IT business owner in the eastern suburbs who sees the potential of the area. Currently, WCC is doing a review on the development of the Kilbirnie area, and my post was in part tied to that. However, I totally see how your idea has legs, too, and fully agree with clustering—and I wonder if doing both is conceivable. There’s only so much space in the CBD, and perhaps Kilbirnie is a fall-back position, because the pipe already exists.
Maybe ‘park’ was a bad choice of word in the post, since I see any development as being in line with some of the more recent trends—here’s a good paper by my mate Malcolm Allan on the topic. Whatever one does in Kilbirnie would have to be in tandem with other developments that the committee is already looking at, including a Chews Lane-type gathering place.
Albertus · 2009/10/09 at 14:42
Having a tech park or multimedia super corridor as some would call it would be a boon to the IT industry in Wellington. You already have the likes of Weta and the like already establishing NZ as a multimedia hub. Open up the tech park as a hub of multimedia instead of the norm ICT hub which most cities are into these days. In addition, the setting up of joint ventures with the universities and the tech companies specializing in multimedia would also help.
Tech park+ niche economy in multimedia ICT hub = jobs= ability for more investments in the tech park=ability for cause to increase the tech infrastructure for free wifi in the city. We can follow the cause of Silicon Valley but instead of being just another tech city, Wellington can be the Multimedia ICT hub, the home of all creative multimedia design as being led by the likes of Weta and others.
Ben Nolan · 2010/09/07 at 12:56
Cool idea. A technology park facility would be interesting, if it was done with modern buildings and good facilities.