A so-called super-brothel in downtown Auckland has been given planning approval.
The 15-storey building will go up across the road from the Sky City Casino, on the site of the former Palace Hotel which collapsed two years ago.
An independent panel of commissioners has found that the plans for the new building and - how it will be used - meet planning and resource consent requirements.
The proposal has been criticised by those opposing a high-profile brothel in a prominent city location.
There has also been criticism that the same developers who were working on the historic Palace Hotel when it collapsed, have been allowed to replace it with a much larger building.
There were 220 submissions to the council opposing the brothel and one of those came from Denise Ritchie from the Stop Demand Foundation, who says legalising prostitution nine years ago was the wrong decision.
Only one submission from the public did not oppose the brothel's planning application.
