$100m Gulf Harbour waterfront housing estate planned on Hobbs Bay farmland

The Hopper site opposite the Gulf Harbour Marina. Photo / Supplied

Hopper Developments has applied to Auckland Council for a zoning change to allow it to build a $100 million housing estate on a seaside farm at Gulf Harbour.

Tim Brooks, chief executive, said 89 residential lots were planned to be created at Hobbs Bay, ranging from 715sq m to 3887sq m per site.

Hopper had bought the land for $24m, he said, and the site was one of the last remaining large waterfront plots of its kind, sloping gently down to the waterfront but flanked by cliffs so the land is around 5m above the sea.

The whole scheme was in the vicinity of around $100m, Brooks said.

The Hopper family is on the NBR Rich List, estimated to have a $190m fortune three years ago.

At Hobbs Bay, Brooks said house-and-land packages would be sold, rather than bare sections.

Plans for the new Hobbs Bay with its own internal roading network. Photo / Supplied

Hopper has applied to change the zoning from residential large lots of around 4000sq m to be able to subdivide the 13.4ha into the 89 much smaller sections.

Brooks said that was a non-complying activity and he expects the council to notify the application so submissions can be made.

The site is opposite the Gulf Harbour marina, at 3-5 Daisy Burrell Drive.

Hoppers plans to convert the existing historic homestead there into a cafe which Brooks said would be open to the public.

"We'd prefer it not to be gated," he said of the planned residential subdivision.

"There is a Hobbs Bay Beach and we'll provide better access to that than there has been. Currently, it's a farm and people can't walk down to the beach across that but we'll develop a reserve and pathways to the beach. That will be linked from the homestead," Brooks said.

Daisy Burrell Drive site marked in red, with the marina to the left. Photo / Google

Property sales would start at $2m for a house on a section of around 700sq m further back from the beach on the site, he said.

"A lot of property will get good views of the beach and the water due to the topography of the site," he said.

Non-complying aspects include a cafe exceeding 100sq m, infringement of large lot zone standards, earthworks and particularly within a historic heritage overlay and vegetation removal.

Sales would not begin for a further nine month's time, Brooks said.

Hopper Developments is a New Zealand family-owned and operated company, with projects in residential, retirement villages, marine-associated activities, commercial and retail, the application says.

The Hopper family has been in the Hibiscus Coast Community for nearly a century, settling in Whangaparaoa in 1927.

The original homestead on the farm is planned to become a cafe. Photo / Supplied

The first family members worked in a range of roles including owning the Arkles Bay Country Store and Post Office, dairy farming, pine trees production and growing pumpkins to sell to the American Navy during World War 2.

The family moved into property development in the 1950s.

Early developments were within Whangaparaoa and its surrounds before two Hopper brothers undertook their first large lifestyle development - the award-winning Pauanui Beach Resort in the Coromandel in 1967.

Leigh Hopper overtook management of the company in 1987 and subdivided a large parcel of land in Orewa to create Maygrove and Lakeside Drive before creating the first residential canal development in New Zealand: Pauanui Waterways, developed in the early 1990s.

The planned canal estate has private jetties that allow residents to berth or launch vessels metres from their front doors.

Leigh Hopper at Whitianga Waterways. Photo / Doug Sherring

Following the success of Pauanui Waterways, Hoppers created another two canal projects at Whitianga Waterways in the Coromandel and Marsden Cove Waterways in Bream Bay at the entrance to Whangarei Harbour.

During the last 20 years, the company has diversified into retirement living, marine associated activities, commercial, retail and residential development, however creating exceptional lifestyle developments is still the company focus and remains core to the company strategy.

Hoppers has continued to follow their common principles in the design of the Hobbs Bay development, entailing detailed planning to propose an exceptional lifestyle subdivision with high amenity value and one that enhances the natural and historical environment of the site and surrounds.

The Hopper site opposite the Gulf Harbour Marina. Photo / Supplied

At Hobbs Bay, the application says the land is farmland interspersed with exotic macrocarpa and pine trees and remnant stands of indigenous bush along the coastal margin and stream riparian margins.

Surrounding land is zoned higher density residential and has terraced housing and apartment buildings.

The site is 20km east of State Highway 1 and about 30km north of Auckland. It is accessed off Daisy Burrell Drive, a stub road that connects to Resolution Drive, Pinecrest Drive and then to Whangaparaoa Rd.