Although unsuccessful in its casino bid, Ngati Whatua entered into a Joint Venture agreement to eventually purchase and then develop commercially the site on a leasehold basis.

Simultaneous to this Crown purchase, Ngati Whatua also on-sold a 150-year terminating lease in consideration for the first 15 years of rent being prepaid.

With this commercial lease in place, the lessee then set about to substantially re-landscape, subdivide and market the sale of lessee lots to a variety of purchasers.

A major shopping centre development was planned with the Australian retailer giant David Jones as anchor tenant. However at the last moment, David Jones did not commit and a major injection of capital funding was required.

Ngati Whatua provided the capital and thus became an active investor in the project in 1997.

Thus, Ngati Whatua became directly involved in a range of complex negotiations including the present Vector Arena lease to Auckland City Council; completion of the Britomart tunnel and potential sales to offshore interests.

The sale of all remaining lessee lots was completed in 2001.

As we look backwards now at the beginning of 2009, and with only three-and-a-half years remaining till the end of the prepaid rental period in September 2011, the initial strategists who planned this acquisition for Ngati Whatua, can only be described as visionary.