Work set to begin on 14-unit apartment in Ponsonby

An artist's impression of the four-level apartment block in Brown St.

A 14-unit Ponsonby apartment development is planned for a pocket 430sq m site in a street once the domain of character villas.

Architect Conway Brooks of Arch Rivals and structural engineer Dave Shilton have run their businesses from the site at 43 Brown St off Ponsonby Rd for more than a decade.

Now, they have Auckland Council resource consent to develop a four-level 1900sq m apartment block with 24 carparks and hope to begin demolition at the end of this month.

Units are being marketed from $595,000 to $1.35 million.

"It seems like a small site but perfectly formed," Brooks said. "It's the shape factor. It's a nice long, wide rectangle which really works well."

He and others paid $600,000 for the property in April 1998, and Shilton bought into it about 10 years ago.

The four-level block with a shop on the ground floor is planned to sit alongside a small two-level villa at 45 Brown St, but Brooks said the owner who had lived at that property since 1947 had signed off the plans and was pleased about the scheme.

"We've got resource consent for a bar on the ground level because it's the hardest to get but a shop will be ideal," he said.

Deposits of 10 per cent have been taken on two units but Brookes said buyers were not leaping in. He blamed the reputation of shoebox apartments, leaky buildings, contractor failures, units targeted at overseas investors and the global finance crisis.

James Kellow of NZ Mortgages & Securities said $8.5 million was being loaned to Brooks' and Shilton's business established to develop the property. The scheme was a good example of a high-density inner-city apartment block with central courtyard and decent outlook within mixed use zoning, Kellow said.

"This building is basically what the Unitary Plan will require for city fringe/suburban development," he said. Brooks said the property was zoned for mixed use but new rules under the proposed Unitary Plan would not necessarily allow for more building bulk or height on the site.