David Parker - Much More Than A Developer

Along with Ponsonby News Editor, Martin Leach, I talked recently to David Parker at his offices at 56 Brown Street in Ponsonby.

David and his brother John, have worked on a number of local developments, both commercial and residential, around the greater Ponsonby area and beyond for 30 years, and yet they are far from household names.

Parker Brothers began as a construction company in 1984. They won the original contract to rebuild Victoria Park, when it had a demolition order on it, beating off Fletchers and others. They also refurbished The Textile Centre in Parnell, for the Amos and Barker families with their architect Roley Adams.


While some property developers are well known and often not far from controversy, Parker Brothers have always been low key, not seeking the limelight, with never a sniff of controversy.


David now solely owns the Brown Street property, which has been recently renamed FRANK PARKER HOUSE after his father. His office is located in the building where he has some 25 different tenants. He still lives locally in Herne Bay, but is spending a lot of time on his new venture, a 26 lot subdivision at Mangawhai, on a property he has owned since 2008.


David Parker is of Ngapuhi and English ancestry. His mother was of Maori and Croatian ancestry, a Stipich and his father was a bricklayer from England. He is proud of his ancestry, and although born in Grey Lynn and living most of his life in central Auckland, his Mangawhai property is dragging him willingly back to his Northland and Ngapuhi roots, which he is reconnecting with at 59 years old. Photos of his father, grandfather and great grandfather are proudly displayed on the wall behind his office desk, all working class men.


He jokes that he lived the first six months of his life in a drawer instead of a cot, in a house on Rose Road.


Sadly, David Parker lost his first wife Jacqui to breast cancer. He nursed her for four years, and she died leaving two young children. Determined to make a difference, David and John poured significant money and energy into ‘Fight for Life’ and other charities over the years to support both youth suicide and breast cancer treatments, particularly the introduction of herceptin. This unheralded philanthropy has included three quarters of a million dollars raised for Youthline to intergrate a comprehensive nation wide phone system by ‘Fight for Life’.


David Parker’s family moved to West Auckland when he was still young where he attended Kelston Boy’s High. He then went on to Auckland University and graduated in Civil Engineering.


Among his early mentors were John and Tytti Spencer, owners of Caxton Printing. I wouldn’t be who I am today if they hadn’t taken in hand an angry young 17-year-old from West Auckland, he told us. He helped the Spencers build factories in Samoa and spent a lot of time with them and their family on Waiheke Island.


We asked David if he’d had problems with leaky buildings which have plagued inner city Auckland in recent years. He reported that he had not, as we never used untreated timber, he said.


David Parker has always had a protester’s streak about him and was anti the springbok tour, he realises the difficulties facing ‘brown’ New Zealanders, but he thinks we’ve started to turn the corner on many of the racial issues. He is positive about the future of his children and grandchildren. His daughter Tallulah is in her second year at the Auckland University, completing a BComm/LIB with a major in Economics and Finance with specialisation in law, under a University of Auckland Maori and Pacific Scholarship and is maintaining a steady A Grade GPA, to prove that her scholarship was not a soft entry to Law School.


David supports the Treaty settlements and hopes that Maori will use the money effectively to advance their iwi and all Maori.


It was when we asked David what comes next that his maturity and values came clearly into focus. This is a man who has found himself. He has a lovely second wife, Corrina, a gorgeous 6-year-old daughter Ava and is now setting out to make a difference.


Mentoring my children, that’s next, he told us. Sam is nearly 25 and working in London. I would like him home to help me at Mangawhai. He has been in London since he was 18, having been in the British Army until a serious accident and is now working in the corporate world.


If things go bad for the world, David will have created a haven for many lucky people, back on the land. He has already overseen the planting of 30,000 plus native trees and plants on the sections at Mangawhai. The native birds and bees are returning.


Build a decent four lane highway to Whangarei soon, David pleads, get Ngapuhi’s treaty settlement done, and concentrate on jobs in the north, especially for Maori.


David Parker may have been born in Auckland, but he is returning to the Ngapuhi soil which is so much part of his heritage. His ancestors would be proud of him - successful in the big wide world, but wanting now to give something back and return to his ancestral roots. He may not be a household name in Auckland despite his business and charity work, but rest assured he will make a huge mark on his chosen rural retreat, as he mentors his family and then their families.


The next twenty years will be an exciting time for all the Parker whanau. (JOHN ELLIOTT)