Property Insider: Agents react to whopper $26m Herne Bay purchase; new Drury South Crossing distribution centre; big Parnell tower discussed; Hauora wins $5.6m grant
One of the two neighbouring Herne Bay homes sold for $26m in deals which settled in January, 2025.
One of the two neighbouring Herne Bay homes sold for $26m in deals which settled in January, 2025.
Opinion by Anne Gibson
Anne Gibson, Property Editor for New Zealand's Herald, has been writing about real estate since 1985 and is a skilled and knowledgeable journalist with deep insights into property as well as other businesses.
Spending $26 million in Herne Bay made headlines and left agents upbeat; low-energy robots will work in a new South Auckland distribution centre; talk of a Parnell tower; Ngāti Whātua sports/rec centre gets big funding boost: all in today’s Property Insider.
Agents expressed delight with the $26 million purchases of two neighbouring Herne Bay homes, reported last week.
“A good sale for the market,” said Sotheby’s co-founder and managing director Mark Harris, telling how that business had brokered the deal via agents Patrick McAteer and Suzanne Browne.
Multimillionaire American immigrant Aaron Boonshoft bought the homes on Jervois Rd but McAteer indicated people shouldn’t be surprised by the price.
“There are some substantial properties for sale all around New Zealand. There’s plenty of properties on the market even north of that but not everyone knows,” McAteer said.
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One of the properties on Jervois Rd, Herne Bay, Auckland
He was low-key about the deals, saying for him it was just “business as usual but equally we were busy on the next sale straight away. It’s what we do for a job.”
Ollie Wall of Wall Real Estate texted when asked about the $26m sales: “Great for the market to see some substantial sales for sure!”
Despite spending $15m on one home and $11m on another, Boonshoft isn’t engaging in any comments on why he bought the two homes.
CoreLogic told the Herald that records showed Boonshoft bought the two properties at the Westmere end of the street.
Associates said he was unlikely to speak about the significant deals. Boonshoft did not seek media attention, they said.
A luxury villa on Jervois Rd, in Auckland's Herne Bay, was scooped up at the end of 2024.
Some who had met him said agents knew he had a substantial amount to spend. Many are not being advertised in the public arena but agents know vendors are keen.
“Everyone was just wheeling up these deals, all multimillion-dollar homes, particularly around the Herne Bay area,” said one person.
But in the end, it was not a single home but two separate residences he bought.
An associate said Boonshoft would not develop the land but would keep both homes as they are and use them both.
New South Auckland distribution centre rising
The new distribution centre for NZ Safety Blackwoods at Drury South, under development as at February 2025.
Automation and robotics are planned features of a new distribution centre of almost 18,000sq m being built at Auckland’s Drury South Crossing where 10 ‘bots are only expected to use as much electricity as one vacuum cleaner.
Andy Antoci, NZ Safety Blackwoods general manager, said the new North Island storage hub was needed by the business which supplies safety, engineering, workwear, office and engineering goods.
The AutoStore robots should be working there by early next year, he said, using only around 100W of power collectively.
The hub will be fitted with an automated storage and retrieval system to speed orders and enable the company to bring third-party logistics warehousing and freight forwarding services in-house, Antoci said.
The centre is being built by Calder Stewart, in partnership with the safety business, at 22 Jack Stevenson Rd and is the single largest investment by NZ Safety Blackwoods which has just over 550 staff and 35 trade stores nationally.
The building won’t be finished till later this year and won’t be operational till around next March.
NZ Safety Blackwoods' new distribution centre, Drury South, Auckland as at February 2025.
Battery-powered autonomous robots will move on a cubic grid system, continuously picking up and rearranging stacked storage bins and delivering them to connected high-speed workstations for order picking and replenishment, Antoci said.
Extensive use of robots and automation is planned to cut the need for staff to do repetitive, dangerous and physically demanding work.
The facility’s design keeps staff separated from mobile plant and areas where machinery is operating and the systems have been designed by Kardex’s AutoStore, Antoci said.
Drury South Crossing is designed to complement the Drury Quarry, owned and operated by the Stevenson Group since 1939. The project does not involve expanding the quarry zone but will reduce the western edge of the quarry zone. That is part of the new industrial area. Stevenson Group has a 20-year plan to develop a greenfields site of more than 361ha.
NZ Safety Blackwoods' new distribution centre, as at February 2025. This base is at Drury South in Auckland.
Forklifts and trucks will be battery-powered. Other sustainability-related features will be daylight harvesting via translucent roof sheeting, rainwater harvesting tanks and low-emissivity double glazing.
A building management system for energy and water monitoring and efficiency, including motion sensors for lighting controls and rapid-rise doors, low VOC paint and landscaping features which need little water are other features.
In 2022, the Heraldreported on new Auckland dry food and retail goods warehouses worth around $250m being planned for a 9.8ha site at Drury South Crossing. Chris Webster, a director of Sorted Logistics, said that company planned three new Drury buildings with a combined floor area of 28,000sq m. Dry food and retail goods would be stored within the structures, he said three years ago.
Big Parnell tower?
Apartment and townhouse owners around the bottom end of town in Parnell are getting wind of a new tower which could possibly rise there.
One wrote to Property Insider, asking about contacting others in a body corporate in the area.
The person said a letter was sent from a body corporate committee saying they had an unsolicited offer from a developer to sell their homes.
The high-rise could be built on Cotesmore Way, Dovedale Pl and Sudbury Tce land.
People reacted in different ways to the news about plans for the leasehold land.
“This has got some people upset, others excited,” the owner said. The land in the area is owned by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei.
Another owner also heard of the plans but said the details were quite light at this stage.
New wellbeing, sports centre wins $5.6m grant
Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei plans the new Hauora and Sports Centre on the Ōrākei Domain.
Plans for the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Sport, Recreation and Hauora Centre on the waterfront Ōrākei Domain have moved a step closer after a multimillion-dollar funding grant announced on February 13.
“A huge milestone for our whānau!” the hapū said on February 18, referring to being one of six Tāmaki Makaurau sports outfits to get $14.3m from the council to help develop their facilities to meet the sport and recreation needs.
It was this land that in the early 1950s they were forced to leave when officials took the land and burnt the papakainga before Queen Elizabeth II’s tour.
Ōrākei Domain regularly floods, with Tāmaki Dr acting as a barrier and keeping water from flowing to the sea. Photo / Google
The Waitangi Tribunal wrote that it took only 100 years for the actions of other people to deprive the hapū of its remaining block of land at Ōrākei.
“The loss of their papakainga severely affected the identity and mana of the hapu. The mana of any tribe is linked to the land which is their economic and spiritual base, the source of their wellbeing and dignity for generation after generation. Once their mana was undermined by the loss of their land, it became almost impossible for Ngāti Whātua of Ōrakei to work together as a tribe. These are the main actions that took place over those hundred years,” the tribunal wrote.
So the sports plans are a huge turnaround although flooding on that domain has been a problem.
Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei Whai Maia Limited, acting on behalf of Whai Maia Charitable Trust 1, won $5.6m for the new Hauora centre.
Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei Waitangi Day celebrations at Ōrakei Domain on Tamaki Drive. Photo / Jason Oxenham
“Thanks to the collective efforts of our whānau, the Ōrākei Local Board, Auckland Council and partners like Foundation North, we are another step closer to realising a long-held wawata – a dedicated Hauora and Sports Centre for our whānau.
“This kaupapa has been years in the making, driven by the aspirations and the tireless efforts of our whānau and kaimahi. A special mihi to everyone who has played a role in bringing this vision to life – this is your success too,” the hapū announced this month.
“The proposed site will be in the vicinity of the Ōrākei Domain at the current site of the Ōkahu Bay Bowling Club and will be located above the projected 100-year sea level mark,” an announcement said.
The club is at the inland end of the domain, at 34 Reihana St.
The other five entities sharing the $14.3m are:
Pakuranga United Rugby Club: $5.57m;
Highbrook Regional Watersport Centre Trust: $2.2m;
Waka Pacific Trust: $250,000;
West Auckland Riding for the Disabled: $512,000.
Auckland Hockey Association: $215,000.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
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