This is the first residential project by NZRPG. Photo / supplied
This is the first residential project by NZRPG. Photo / supplied
Views from Whangaparāoa across to the Coromandel Peninsula, black and white marble-lined bathrooms, schist on entry features and the smell of new cedar - that's what it's like inside the North Shore's newest luxury apartment building.
The 16.1m indoor in-ground pool is all neon blue and granite-lined walls with afully mirrored back wall to create a duplicate illusion. Wolf appliances on the upper levels include built-in coffee-makers. Balconies are fully roofed to give protection in all weather.
Alongside the Milford Shopping Centre, dozens of tradespeople are inside the new 63-unit Omana North apartments, readying them for occupation shortly.
Forty-two apartments in the affluent area's first high-rise residential block on the North Shore have sold for around $2 million to $3m each, although prices rise the higher up you go in the block.
Campbell Barbour, New Zealand Retail Property Group general manager, showed the Herald inside the nine-level block which he said would be worth around $150 million when finished.
It's so luxurious, he says, that every bedroom has its own ensuite and end-block apartments have an entry area with glazed full-length gallery-style cedar double doors.
All units face north because corridors are on the southwest or Milford Shopping Centre side. The same company owns the mall and plans further apartment buildings beside it in the next few years.
Interior of a level three apartment at Omana North. Photo / Supplied
The curved-shaped air-conditioned building rose mostly on what was an asphalted area alongside the mall although some of the new apartment's car parking is directly beneath The Warehouse and was existing shopping centre car parking.
Barbour said the floor level of that partial area was lowered to allow a higher stud so stackers can be installed for owners to double their parking capacity.
A 101sq m two-bedroom two-bathroom apartment on level one sells for $1,575,000 but the 181sq m level-nine north-east facing penthouse is $5.7m. More mid-range level six 117sq m units go for $2,445,000 while a level eight 147sq m place sells for $3,520,000.
All up, 90 car parks are provided but stackers allow owners to double basement capacity. The building has two lifts.
It has drawn strong local comment, some people critical of its exterior appearance in an area dominated by low-rise buildings.
But Barbour says green walls have been installed: plants aimed to soften the exterior "and they'll be allowed to get really big and bushy".
Apartments look over the estuary or towards the beach. Photo / Michael Craig
Body corporate fees will average $7000/year throughout the building.
Last decade, the block's future was planned, then delayed. NZRPG initially marketed Omana North as The Milford.
But in November 2017, the company put the scheme in the wealthy neighbourhood on hold and initial works stopped. Deposits were refunded.
Kitchens come with engineered stone benchtops. Photo / Michael Craig
Mark Gunton's privately-owned New Zealand Retail Property Group repaid depositors when it delayed one of Auckland's most upmarket apartment schemes where a penthouse was pre-sold for $6m.
Barbour said at the time high bank borrowing costs, falling house prices, low pre-sales and delays getting contract building prices had prompted the business to delay building the first 115 apartment units and 20 new shops.
But in 2019, he announced: "We're in the process of preparing a building consent application. We've been undertaking some off-market pre-sales, with people we have been dealing with previously. Eventually, we will go for a full, on-market programme."
Instead of 115 units, 63 have now been built.
From the balcony of the level nine penthouse, for sale for $5.7m. Photo / Michael Craig
Gunton and Barbour were well ahead of their time with their project, first proposed earlier last decade, well before the Auckland Unitary Plan encouraged intensification, and before cross-party agreement at Government level to go much further than Auckland Council had.
Campbell Barbour of NZRPG: developed the new Omana North. Photo / Michael Craig
Gunton and Barbour fought for years, including in the Environment Court, to get consent to build the apartments, strongly opposed by locals who live in single or two-level homes.
In 2014, the Herald reported how Gunton's Milford Centre wanted to build blocks up to 17 levels.
The basement pool for residents is 16.1m long. Photo / Michael Craig
The Environment Court said back then that he was allowed to build up to a maximum of around 42m or about 12 levels with other surrounding slightly shorter towers in what is now the carparking area.
The court also said back in 2014 that it recognised the business owned a large site so it said it was approving a modified Plan Change proposed by Milford Centre but rejected by Auckland Council hearing commissioners.
Back then, residents said the high-rise apartments were inappropriate for the area.
But today, Barbour said many Omana North places had been sold to Milford residents, aged in their 50s to 70s. The properties were an excellent alternative to retirement villages for those in the older age bracket, he said. People would not lose 20 per cent to 30 per cent of their capital on an Omana North apartment, like they would if they bought into a retirement village.
Mark Gunton, founder and owner of NZ Retail Property Group which built Omana North. Photo / Nick Reid
NZRPG plans significant residential development at its Westgate. But Barbour said the demographics there were different to Milford, so Omana North was not a prototype of what the company might do at Westgate.
Omana North was designed by NZRPG's own architects: "We've taken exactly the same approach to the apartments as we did to Westgate - designed it, started it without any pre-sales, did all the earthworks, built it and sold it," Barbour said.
And as for Westgate, Costco is about to open there on land NZRPG sold it - on Gunton Drive.
