At a glance
RP Financial's New Zealand company lodged its full fast-track application for 100 Halsey Street on 22 October 2026, the Environmental Protection Authority told BusinessDesk.
One of the five new buildings planned for the Wynyard Quarter site could hold a data centre and an indoor electricity substation.
The data centre would provide about 35MW of IT load at first, rising to 88MW when fully built, according to the referral documents.
An economic assessment puts the development at NZ$634 million without the data centre and NZ$1.164 billion with it.
An expert panel will decide the application under the Fast-track Approvals Act.
Singapore fund manager RP Financial has lodged a fast-track application for offices and a data centre at 100 Halsey Street in Auckland's Wynyard Quarter, BusinessDesk reported. Its New Zealand company, NZ CRE 100 Halsey Limited, lodged the full application on 22 October, a spokesperson for the Environmental Protection Authority's fast-track team told the outlet.
The data centre would start at about 35MW of IT load and grow to 88MW once fully developed, according to the fast-track referral documents. IT load is the power the servers and network equipment draw, before cooling. The documents "make clear that the data centre is the preferred option", BusinessDesk said. If a data centre does not prove commercially feasible, that building would be developed as offices instead. We first reported the 88MW data centre option on 3 November.
RP Financial plans a data centre among five buildings
The 1.7-hectare leasehold site holds the Travelodge building, with a hotel, a supermarket and several restaurants, and the NZ Bus depot. About 1.3 hectares of it can be developed. RP Financial bought the site for NZ$55 million in December 2025, its first purchase in New Zealand, RNZ reported. The seller was Infratil, which said the money would go into its data centre developments, the National Business Review reported.
On that land, the referral documents describe five new buildings with about 80,000 square metres of office and commercial floorspace, BusinessDesk reported. One of them has the option of holding the data centre, with an indoor substation. The work is planned in stages over several years, so NZ Bus can keep operating from the site in the meantime.
"The proposal will deliver substantial and enduring economic benefits to Auckland under either development configuration," the developer said in its referral, as quoted by BusinessDesk.
Data centre option nearly doubles the investment to NZ$1.16bn
RP Financial's referral sets out two versions of the development. An economic impact assessment put the all-office version at NZ$634 million, BusinessDesk reported. The version with the data centre and its substation in place of one office building comes to NZ$1.164 billion, about NZ$530 million more.
Insight Economics, which prepared the referral assessment, put the larger option at about NZ$766 million of one-off GDP. It estimated 1,700 to 1,830 jobs once the precinct is mature, and assessed the data centre and zone substation as "nationally significant infrastructure".
Auckland's Hobson Street substations are about 500 metres away
A data centre needs a large, reliable power supply, and this site is close to one. Transpower's Hobson Street substation and Vector's Hobson zone substation are both about 0.5km from 100 Halsey Street, on the locations the two companies publish. Vector is the lines company for central Auckland.
On our read, a building of 35MW to 88MW on the edge of Auckland's city centre suits cloud and enterprise customers that want capacity close to the city's offices and networks. BusinessDesk understands the data centre is "much smaller than" the hyperscale proposals in Southland and Stratford.
NEXTDC had planned a 15MW data centre nearby, between Nelson and Hobson Streets, and withdrew its consent bid in October.
An expert panel has a default 90 working days to decide
Ministers accepted the project into the fast-track process on 1 July, allowing RP Financial to submit a full application for an expert panel to consider, BusinessDesk reported. Under the Fast-track Approvals Act, a panel decides on projects listed in the Act or referred into it by the government.
The Environmental Protection Authority has 15 working days to check that an application is complete and in scope, law firm Buddle Findlay says. Panels then have a default maximum of 90 working days to decide, unless the applicant agrees to a longer timeframe, under amendments that apply to applications lodged from 31 March 2026, law firm Wynn Williams says.
The application lands days before the 7 November election, and data centre power rules are part of the campaign. The Green Party, which wants large data centre consents paused until rules exist, has criticised the referral. National is campaigning on "requiring data centre developers to bring sufficient additional firmed electricity to support their own electricity demand", BusinessDesk reported.
What to watch
The completeness check. The Environmental Protection Authority's decision on whether the 22 October application is complete and in scope.
The panel. The appointment of the expert panel, which must start work within five working days of its members being appointed.
An operator. Whether RP Financial names an operator or tenant for the data centre.
The election. New rules for how data centres secure their power, after the 7 November vote.
