Apartments for Chow brothers’ old site.
New plans for a high-rise apartment block have been submitted for the central Auckland site that was to house a controversial super-brothel.
Conrad Properties has bought the former Chow brothers' site at 75 Victoria St West and has submitted resource consent for a 25-level residential apartment complex.
The proposed 161-unit building includes studios, two-bedroom apartments and nine retail shops at street level.
Jamie Hutchens from Conrad Properties said the company was excited to be involved in such a central location.
"It is going to be a great project to be involved with, no doubt about that, but it is in the very early stages and nothing is concrete."
It is not known how much Conrad Properties paid for the land, or how much its proposed development will cost.
Strip club owners Michael and John Chow bought the site in 2011 for $3.3 million and its 2011 CV was $2,650,000.
Conrad Properties has developed a dozen apartment blocks in the city centre such as Zest, Aura, Volt and Federal Apartments.
The Victoria St site, across the road from SkyCity casino and the busy Federal St restaurant precinct, has been empty since the historic Palace Hotel was demolished in 2010.
The Chows were renovating the hotel to turn it into a 15-storey brothel, but structural damage forced Auckland Council to demolish the building. The brothers were sent the quarter-million-dollar demolition bill.
The resource consent application for the brothel drew 220 opposing submissions but was still approved by the council.
However, the Chow brothers were also embroiled in a bitter battle with rival strip-club owner Jaqui Le Prou, who had challenged the renewal of a liquor licence at their other clubs.
The Chows won the case, but said the battle with Le Prou and new liquor licensing laws had exhausted their patience. They decided against going ahead with the super-brothel.