The arrival of Nextspace into Wynyard Quarter will help boost council-owned Waterfront Auckland's plan to have an innovation precinct in the area.

Work on the Viaduct Harbour bridge for pedestrians and cyclists at Wynyard Quarter is starting this week as part of the $100 million of construction in the region in the year to June 2011.

The bridge, Wynyard Crossing, will link the Wynyard Quarter development with the eastern Viaduct.

This week the old Team New Zealand building at Halsey St is being removed, with a plaza to be constructed in its place where bridge-crossers will step back on to land.

The owner of the Ports of Auckland has upped its interim payout to the Auckland Regional Council by 15.9% after returning to profitability in the last six months of 2009.

Auckland Regional Holdings (ARH) – the commercial arm of the regional council with a $1 billion portfolio of assets – revealed today that it  paid out $74.3 million to the council in the six months ended December, up from $64.1 million in the last half of 2008.

It also recorded a net profit for the half year of $31.7 million, well ahead of the budgeted $13.2 million.