125th Year, Alexandra Park’s most important

Business profile for media release

Alexandra Park

Monday, 9 February 2015

125th Year, Alexandra Park’s most important

Alexandra Park is celebrating its 125th year of harness racing not by putting on special race meetings and presenting anniversary trophies but by locking in different commercial milestones to ensure a long-term future for the Auckland Trotting Club.

Leading the way is chief executive Dominique Dowding who has been with Alexandra Park for just over two years and has made some solid progress on delivering the board’s three strategic pillars. They are to revitalise and reposition harness racing in the region, grow the business and attract new audiences, and lift the value of the club’s existing property portfolio.

Evidence of success came at last year’s Westpac Auckland Central Business Awards. Alexandra Park was a finalist in two categories for Leadership and Strategy & Planning. Not so long ago Alexandra Park board and management could never have imagined they’d be the toast of Auckland business community.

“I am very fortunate as I’m incredibly supported by a great board that brings to the table a huge depth of business acumen and commercial reality. Our chair Kerry Hoggard and eight board directors completely get it. Our strategy is all about building a sustainable business model, getting more out of our asset base, and lifting our profits. That is the only way we can grow harness racing for our industry and our members.”

For Ms Dowding this not only means ensuring a greater return from the Epsom site that has hosted races since 1890, but actually taking the lead in rebuilding the sport in the northern region from the ground up.

Last October Alexandra Park’s merger with the Franklin Trotting Club was completed with the number of horses now using the Pukekohe training facilities up 40%.

“This is all about reducing the costs for people and attracting young trainers back into the business. Ideally we would actually like to establish a world-class equine training centre down there for other horse disciplines to also use. A master-plan is what we’re now working on.”

Friday night trots have been an institution at the Park since the 1950s but she says the club is completely realistic about being able to drag in a whole new crowd. Nonetheless they are keen to work on harness racing’s image and remind potential sponsors of the huge racing television audience the sport attracts.

“Where we can attract new audiences we do but it’s critical we do not alienate our existing attendees. We try to make Friday nights as accessible as we can with free parking, free entry and family entertainment and for about 2,000 people most Fridays it’s a lot of fun. But we do need to keep getting new people through the gates. That is an ongoing challenge given all the entertainment choices out there these days.”

Dowding says one idea is for the club to better engage corporates by promoting the concept of horse syndication, where shares can be taken in a horse. Offices could then effectively race each other all in the name of team building.

“Harness Racing hasn’t had a terribly glamorous image in the past few years but we’re lucky because Alexandra Park itself is seen as pretty desirable iconic real estate, not to mention its central location. Hence we’re very confident that our proposed lifestyle village is set to be a huge success with best practice urban design showcased.”

Alexandra Park’s 223 ‘Green Lane West’ proposed development will see the “dust bowl” car-park adjacent to the ASB Showgrounds transformed into a mixed use site comprising of 4,773sqm of ground floor high-end retail space over four buildings with 231 apartments above. Apartment prices will range from $550,000 through to $1.6m+ and will be sold under freehold unit titles. Interest is already heating up with prospective buyers now registering at www.apliving.co.nz

Originally the club had consent for three commercial buildings but Dowding says the club revisited this when Auckland Council’s draft Unitary Plan presented itself and promoted a greater emphasis on Auckland delivering more residential developments on brownfield sites. The park’s underlying zoning is now proposed as “Major Recreational Facility” with 223 Green Lane West now deemed “Mixed Use.”

The development proposal would see the club retain the ownership of the premium ground floor retail space boosting its annual rental income. While it would sell off the apartments above to the likes of empty nesters, young urban professionals, and families seeking the much sought after double grammar zone.

“What we’re trying to achieve here is a really attractive and stylish 21st century urban village with great design, amenities and public spaces in the heart of Epsom. Aesthetically it’s going to be a huge improvement from the ugly old car-park and with great high-end boutique retail stores and top food and beverage, the aim is for it to become a real lifestyle destination. It’s a great central location.”

Members signed up to the proposal at a Special General Meeting on 26 November knowing that this is the key to the club’s long term viability.

Ms Dowding says the club’s formal decision to proceed and to borrow nearly $200m was “the biggest decision our members have ever made.” Alexandra Park’s new real estate offerings will come to the market in the coming weeks, with future trucks moving people in by the end of 2016.

Another decision members have taken in recent months was to negotiate with popular Super 15 rugby franchise, the Auckland Blues, with commitment from the Blues now secured for them to construct a state-of-the-art $4m high performance training facility near Campbell Crescent and develop a practice field in the middle of the track by the end of this year.

Cirque du Soleil has four years of its lease left, while Alexandra Park’s other tenants include the hugely popular Grand Park Chinese restaurant, Sport Auckland, Lollipops day-care, an IT company in the old Epsom Stand, Caltex and Burger King on Manukau Road, not to forget car parking income. The Alex Eatery is owned by the club and does well while the park’s TAB has the biggest turnover of any in the country, boasting an annual take of over $11m.

While the Canadian-born chief executive is keen to applaud her board’s business nous and focus, the chairman sends any applause straight back to her. In the club’s latest annual report Mr Hoggard describes the organisation’s surprise latest $280,000 net operating profit as “a great credit to the management team ably led by our CEO”. The profit was achieved despite a forecast loss, depreciation, and the board’s decision to increase stakes.

Ms Dowding says the decision to increase the stakes was another example of the club being prepared to invest in harness racing’s long-term future.

“When you lift the stakes, it helps boost the whole lifecycle of racing. You get more owners, more breeders, more races, and more winners and so it goes on.”

One revenue stream however that has stayed static and will probably continue to in the foreseeable future is the subsidy from the New Zealand Racing Board through Harness Racing New Zealand. With rising costs clubs increasingly are having to dig deep.

Despite this trend, financially it has been a good year for Alexandra Park, particularly in the hospitality area with revenue from its function centre business up 13.8% in the past year and over 24% in the past 24 months.

The club boasts a total annual revenue stream of $19m and is committed to ongoing upgrades to its $125m asset base with ongoing improvements to the likes of its function centre and in-house catering. Without doubt such investment is achieving a good return on investment, instantly attracting more business meetings and people. Over 20,000 walk through the gates during November and December for the likes of Christmas functions and racing.

Over the past decade the Park has worked closely with its thoroughbred friends down the road at Ellerslie Racecourse on a calendar of Auckland Cup events around the first week of March. However one disappointment for both clubs is that this celebratory week of racing is not actively promoted by Auckland Council. Auckland Cup Week is not part of Auckland Tourism, Events, and Economic Development’s Major Events Strategy but Ms Dowding’s not overly phased.

“We have a great relationship with the City and we’ve worked very well with their planning department as we’ve all tried to secure the best possible outcomes from the unitary plan process and our consent. We also have worked with ATEED and I am sure they will review their role in Cup Week and support it in the future. In the meantime we will just carry on as we have done for the past 125 years.”

Ms Dowding knows the world of local government and council controlled organisations well. Before taking up the Alexandra Park role in October 2012, she was a long-time director of Christchurch City Council Trading Organisation Vbase which oversaw the city’s many venues coming into one operating company.

She has been in business herself, and since moving to New Zealand in 1988 has worked in a number of senior governance and management roles including eight years at the Christchurch Town Hall. In Canterbury she was part of a syndicate that owned pacers and trotters and so harness racing was not completely foreign to her.

Ms Dowding says without the Christchurch earthquakes she probably wouldn’t have moved to Auckland, but she was encouraged to go for the role and was instantly impressed with the chair and board’s completely fresh and focused approach to ensuring Alexandra Park’s survival in the 21stcentury.

“The board have been supportive and encouraging since day one as have the staff. I thought doing business in Auckland was going to be hard, but the city is far more collaborative than I anticipated. Everyone I deal with is pretty positive, they take you at face value, and you can actually do things relatively quickly in this city.

“I am pretty determined and have an opinion and some people don’t like that. And I thought my approach might have been a bit of a struggle for this 125-year-old membership-based club. But I have to say the overwhelming number of people and members associated with Alexandra Park are hugely excited and supportive about what we’re trying to achieve here.

“Growing harness racing in the heart of New Zealand’s biggest city is looking more and more secure. 2014 was a great year for the club. We got some real runs on the board to ensure we can successfully deliver the vision. 2015 is well positioned,” says Ms Dowding.

www.apliving.co.nz

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