Bold statement at Whisper Cove

The first stage of five in this luxury development at Snells Beach is expected to be finished early next year.

A $215 million seaside holiday villa and apartment complex is being constructed at Snells Beach in Kawau Bay north of Auckland.

The luxury Whisper Cove development on 16ha of prime land at the popular beach resort will comprise 160 homes in a mixture of styles from villas to apartments, all with a sea view.

Buyers have already parted with $25 million for 12 villas and one apartment, which range in price from $950,000 to $2.5 million.

Developer Kawau Holdings has fully funded the project in Australia. Director Timothy Manning says developments of this size are often too big for New Zealand banks.

"We bypassed them and went straight to a major Australian bank for the money."

Colliers International project marketing director Philip Toogood says Australian banks and funds are keen to place more money in New Zealand projects, particularly if they are good-quality and within two hours of Auckland.

Getting Whisper Cove off the ground was a drawn-out affair.

The initial plans and foreshore development were turned down by the Rodney District Council after objections from Snells Beach residents.

The council then sat down with Kawau Holdings and local residents' groups and worked through the site and foreshore plans to arrive at a negotiated settlement for the development.

The original proposal to build 280 dwellings was cut back to 160 homes to avoid putting the area's infrastructure under strain.

Manning says that although the negotiation process was time-consuming, it avoided many problems.

As a result, the approach taken with Whisper Cove is seen as setting a possible model for approval of such projects.

Whisper Cove is being developed in five stages. Earth, roading and infrastructure works started in October, initially concentrating on road formation, building site contouring and preliminary work for the park areas. These works will be finished by the end of summer.

Construction of the villas and apartments will start in April. The first stage is expected to be finished early next year and the entire five-stage project completed by late 2008 or early 2009.

Whisper Cove's revised concept plans were produced by Pal Levitt based on a North American design. Architects Swan Railley & Associates developed the concepts to produce final plans for consents.

Principal Robert Railley has designed many of Auckland's top houses and Toogood says he has a reputation for style, exclusivity and innovation.

He will also oversee the project's construction in respect to weathertightness, finishes and overall aesthetics.

The council's urban designer, Andrew Trevelyan, has worked alongside Manning on architectural and design issues to ensure Whisper Cove's quality.

The villas and apartments will be traditional stone, copper spouting and linear weatherboard, and a site superintendent will be employed - a practice common in the 1960s but not seen recently.

Landscaping has been designed by Tim King. The design encompasses a stream, a flat reserve to the beachfront and 38,000 trees and shrubs, at a cost of more than $1.8 million.

The detail being put into this project is to deliver a quality product in a top location, says Toogood. The council says the quality architecture and large public park areas at Whisper Cove will give local residents access to more recreation area without cost to the council, and add considerable value to property prices.

Toogood says that unlike many coastal residential developments where the front-row houses are the only ones to benefit from the beach aspect, the design of Whisper Cove gives virtually all the villas and apartments in the first three stages water views and direct beach access.

All but one of the six stage-one Beach Front villa homes, which have wide uninterrupted views of Kawau Bay and gulf islands, have been snapped up at $2.5 million each.

Buyers have also been happy to pay $1 million less for the Ocean View villas, which are set back from the water's edge but still feature both water and garden views.

Stages two and three will have a further 12 beachfront villas. The smaller Island View villas sell for under $1 million.

Between 1991 and 2001, the population of Rodney District grew 39 per cent, and is projected to increase by 41,000 residents, or 53 per cent, by 2021.

One response to the demand is a a 2500sq m supermarket as part of a development plan for the Snells Beach Shopping Centre.

As the second-fastest growth area in the country, the structure of Rodney is changing, says council chief executive Vijaya Vaidyanath. It once had a relatively old population, but parts of Rodney, especially the southern areas of the district, are fast becoming an extension of the larger Auckland urban area, attracting younger people as city real estate prices send young families to the outer boundaries.

Vaidyanath says Rodney is no longer a seasonal seaside resort or a rural retreat where restricted services and limited infrastructure can be viewed as quaint. As the district grows, residents are demanding and expecting better services.