Amazon building in Auckland held up due to stormwater plans

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Auckland Council says Amazon is working with council’s Healthy Waters team and adjacent landowners.
Photo: 123RF

The building of Amazon’s first new data centre in Auckland is delayed by its stormwater design.

Amazon Web Services, or AWS, has said it will invest $7.5 billion over 15 years building three centres in the city.

Auckland Council said the US company’s resource consent application was paused in September 2023 and how it handled stormwater continued to hold it back.

It must comply with the Totara Creek Integrated Catchment Management Plan.

Council said Amazon was working with council’s Healthy Waters team and adjacent landowners.

The other designations around earthworks and geotechnical matters, noise and vibration, hazardous substances, industrial trade activity, contamination, access design and groundwater had all been sorted out.

Data centres can use a lot of water for cooling their thousands of computer servers.

“It is not uncommon for resource consent applications to be placed on hold at some point during the consenting process, and there is nothing out of the ordinary about this one,” the council said.

“The need for a connection to the public stormwater network would apply to any large-scale development on this site, and is not specific to its function as a data centre.”

Amazon has been approached for comment.