Ponsonby's Soho Square will become a supermarket, office and apartment precinct. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Ponsonby's Soho Square will become a supermarket, office and apartment precinct. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Work starts today on one of Auckland's most controversial sites, as a supermarket giant begins transforming the chasm of Ponsonby's Soho Square into a shopping, office and apartment precinct.
Progressive Enterprises' property general manager, Adrian Walker, said work was beginning on the 1.3ha site on the corner of Pollen Stand Williamson Ave to build a new Countdown and create the retail and business precinct.
The project would be one of the biggest in Auckland, with a total investment of more than $200 million of which half would come from Progressive, he said.
The project is called Vinegar Lane as a tribute to the old DYC vinegar factory that once stood on the site.
A 4200sq m Countdown, shops, office space and 680 carparks will be built on the fenced site which has stood vacant since it was excavated by over-ambitious developer Layne Kells in 2008.
Now, 24,000cu m of soil has been returned to the heavily excavated site which had too much land for Progressive.
So Progressive's development manager, Brady Nixon, developed a scheme for a mixed-use community on the land and 31 development sites were pre-sold for between $285,000 and $1.4 million.
Apartments and commercial premises will be built on the site, designed by some of New Zealand's top architects.
