Over 100 multi-million dollar high-rise apartments being built above the Milford Centre are Auckland's "prototype for the future", a design architect working on the project says.
Ngaere Duff, senior project designer for the mall owners, New Zealand Retail Property Group (NZRPG), says the 10-storey complex is a first for New Zealand: "This is something never seen here before, we are creating a legacy and a prototype for the future."
The 115 apartments, part of stage one of a project which includes the refurbishment and extension of the centre's shopping mall, will bring to Auckland a lifestyle option available in many large cities around the world.
Duff says the development - known as Milford-Living - is due for completion in late 2019. It will have a gym, pool and barbecue on the fifth level, a dining zone and 20 more shops in the mall extension.
But it is not likely to be the last of its kind in Auckland. NZRPG also own the Highbury Shopping Centre at Birkenhead and Westgate Town Centre, where plans for a similar retail/residential mix are being developed.
"Ten years ago Auckland wasn't ready for this, but now it is," says Duff. "People want convenience but also an experience. Our market research tells us people across all age groups are looking for something elegant and sophisticated - but also the ease of going out their door and down the lift to do their supermarket shopping.
"This is offering a new kind of lifestyle for Aucklanders."
Complexes of this kind - known as mixed-use centres - are mushrooming around the world. Leighton Hunziker, director of retail services at Savills Australia, global real estate service provider, says mixed-use developments are more than just a trend.
"They are here to stay and they're going to grow," he says.
Hermann J. Kircher, president of Toronto-based Kircher Research Associates, says they are more than the flavour of the month: "Mixed-use incorporates many of the features now demanded by an increasingly sophisticated and educated customer base, particularly in the mid to high income area."
There are more than 150 in the United States. One now under construction in Los Angeles is the giant Metropolis complex which will include 70,000 square feet of retail, an 18-storey boutique hotel and 1500 residential units in three condominium towers.
In Singapore the 64-storey Tanjong Pagar Centre opened in January and has been dubbed "the vertical city". It features six-storeys of retail, 181 apartments, 890,000 square feet of office space and 150,000 square feet of landscaped gardens.
Duff says Milford differs not just in size from some of the big overseas centres but in location. "We have a suburb with a strong community in a seaside environment, so we are responding to that. We are not LA."
The Milford project is a good example of the Auckland Unitary Plan being executed, says Paul Tanday, NZRPG's general manager revenue.
"It is ironic we spent 10 years getting this through resource consent and, within a couple of months of getting it, the plan - which provides for greater density of residential development - gave us what we wanted anyway," he says.
"Ten years ago, if I'd said there will be apartments in Albany and Milford you'd have said I was mad. But Auckland is growing at such a phenomenal rate it cannot keep spreading out," he says.
Tanday says the perception of apartment living has not always been good: "But many Kiwi ex-pats returning to New Zealand are used to living in apartments in places like New York or Singapore and mowing lawns on a Saturday morning is not where they want to be."
NZRPG's original vision when it bought Milford over 10 years ago was to create a difference from other malls in New Zealand.
"Traditional retail owners and developers think it is risky to do residential, so stick to their knitting and open more shops. Likewise residential developers don't have expertise in retail so they also stick to their knitting," he says. "That's where we are different.
"If we had tried to go up against Albany with a small 14,000 sq m centre we would have died," he says. "So we targeted boutique fashion brands, a move supported by the fact Milford is an affluent area.
"Our shoppers want more choice of quality products and brands, so we are extending the mall and meeting the live/shop/dine combination our research tells us people are looking for," he says. "We also don't see the Milford main street as the enemy, we've always believed if main street is strong, we are strong and if we are strong, main street is strong."
Construction ground-work has started at Milford. The apartments will be positioned above the mall extension (not the existing mall building) on an area previously used as a carpark. Stage two, to be known as Omana North, will reach up to eight storeys with about 60 apartments designed to wrap around the north-facing area of the shopping centre.