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Conditional sales agreements have been struck on three of 12 apartments about to be developed inside the historic Excelsior House on Auckland's waterfront.
Sarah Hull, Bluewater's marketing and events manager, said deposits had been paid for three places and others were under negotiation.
The apartments are priced from $750,000 to $1.4 million and will be developed inside one of the few warehouses in Bluewater's heritage restoration of 19 historic buildings.
The five-level Excelsior House is listed as a Category II Historic Places Trust building.
It stands on leasehold land owned by Auckland City Council. Bluewater is paying the ground lease for the next few years until the redevelopment is completed. Then, the new apartment owners will pay ground rent, incorporated in their body corporate fees.
The ground lease expires in 2154 - 146 years away.
The Excelsior building was designed by architect Edmund Bell and has functioned as a warehouse, saddlers' premises, brewery and bank. Originally twice its current size, the building was annexed by the Auckland City Council in 1935 with the western half of the building demolished to make way for Commerce St, according to information from Bluewater.
Excelsior, on the corner of Customs and Commerce Sts, was in one of the worst conditions of any of the Britomart buildings. The solid warehouse, built in 1897, had been abandoned for about three decades but, earlier this month, Bluewater launched a marketing campaign to sell the units.
Matthew Cockram, Bluewater chief executive, said Excelsior was a turning point because it was the first release of residential space in the Britomart precinct.
Jeremy Priddy, Bluewater Management's director, said Excelsior would appeal to people seeking character apartments but they would also be able to work from the building.
"The design of the apartments is deliberately directed at allowing maximum flexibility around the 'live/work' concept," according to Bluewater's information memorandum.
"The primary use of these apartments will be as residences."
Stanbeth House, another historic building next door to Excelsior, is four levels and is also being redeveloped. Stanbeth's upper two levels will be subdivided into four large units for offices or apartments.
"They are being offered for sale on a bare shell basis so that they may be fitted out and equipped at the purchaser's cost for the particular use for which they are acquired," the information memorandum says.
The document is for the two buildings which Bluewater is calling Excelsior Stanbeth House.
The developer is Britomart Excelsior Stanbeth Company, a company created from the amalgamation and the vendor in the sale and purchase documents.
Stanbeth was build in 1885 as a warehouse for produce merchants.
Level one of Stanbeth House will be used as an exhibition and events function area.
It will be owned by Britomart Stanbeth Excelsior Company but used jointly with Auckland City which intends to hold displays there.
Cheshire Architects of Auckland and David Lucas Design of New York have been appointed to the job with Holmes Consulting for the structure and Lincolne Scott for building services. Building and resource consents have been applied for and are expected next month, Bluewater said.
EXCELSIOR HOUSE
In the last century, building used as:
* Tea, coffee and spice warehouse.
* Saddlery and kauri gum merchant store.
* Early branch of the Old Age Pensions Office.
* Branch of the Bank of New Zealand in 1960.
