Winton Land's new Auckland waterfront apartment block will start at $5.4 million and go up to $29m for the sub-penthouse. Video / Winton Land
NZX-listed development and property investment specialist Winton Land is adding to its existing plans in Auckland’s waterfront Wynyard Quarter with a new apartment block where prices will start at $5.4 million and go up to $29m for the sub-penthouse.
Chris Meehan, chief executive, said where penthouses in other apartmenttowers had problems selling, he does not expect that at The Villard.
Blocks where penthouses languished often had many small apartments below, were of a mass-produced building quality and “in an inferior commercial CBD location that regrettably, is surrounded by crime”, Meehan said.
Winton Land has big plans for the Wynyard Quarter. This map shows the location of the planned new apartments, The Villard (top right). Image / Winton Land
Winton’s new apartments would be higher quality in a boutique building, with higher internal stud heights and quality finishes “in a super-prime residential location where you can both park your yacht in your marina berth out the front and walk in absolute safety to lots of fabulous restaurants, recreation areas and the theatre”.
“We feel that there will be simply no comparable apartment offering in Auckland and it will be the only freehold apartment building in the entire Wynyard Quarter and The Viaduct,” Meehan said this week.
All up, Winton has $750m plans for the Wynyard Quarter area.
Winton plans 21 apartments on its freehold block in a 12-level building. Most of the other sites in the area are owned by Eke Panuku and apartments are sold on a leasehold basis.
Meehan said traditional European architecture and Danish minimalism had inspired plans by architect Andy Gentry of Woods Bagot.
The site is on the corner of Pakenham St West and Daldy St on land Winton bought from Mansons TCLM.
The $5.4m starting price at The Villard is for a planned three-bedroom, two-bathroom unit of 166sq m. The $29m sub-penthouse is to be a four-bedroom, four-bathroom 542sq m apartment.
Plans for Cafe Victor within the new apartment building. Photo / Winton Land
Meehan is understood to be planning to live in the penthouse of The Villard.
But $29m for the floor below him is not a record asking price. In 2018, the Herald reported how a two-level “super penthouse” was being marketed for $35m which then set a record for the asking price of a New Zealand apartment, according to its salesman.
Plans for The Villard, a new Wynyard Quarter apartment building from Winton Land. Photo / Winton Land
The apartment was in the 57-level $300m Pacifica in Auckland’s CBD according to Gavin Lloyd, CBRE national residential projects director.
This decade, media reported that penthouse being split into smaller areas to tempt buyers.
Plans for how the lobby in the new 12-level apartment building might look. Photo / Winton Land
Developers of the nearby apartment tower, Seascape Auckland on Customs St East, say that at 187m, their tower will be taller than the 178m Pacifica and they will ask “more than $20m for the master penthouse which will occupy two floors with five bedrooms, roughly 350sq m and astonishing 360 degree views”.
The new home of Mark Todd of Ockham Residential will be the penthouse of The Greenhouse on Williamson Ave, Ponsonby, once the upper level is finished in that block, opened last month by Mayor Wayne Brown.
Meehan said Winton’s planned a “lifestyle precinct” at Wynyard Quarter, in a wider scheme which includes many other building uses.
Meehan with Winton's $750m Wynyard Quarter plans. The Pier 21 Drystack is to the far right. Photo / Dean Purcell
The new apartment block will be near Winton’s planned vertical Northbrook Wynyard Quarter retirement village and its planned Cracker Bay.
Elements of those schemes include:
Refurbishing the waterfront 11 Westhaven Drive, the white multi-level offices, originally Mantells On the Water at Pier 21. Peter Gordon’s Homeland restaurant and cooking school are on the ground floor now. Winton Land will move its offices into this block and lease out commercial space;
Refurbishing Pier 21′s Drystack Boatpark, with double-stacking for 190 craft, at 15 Westhaven Drive, continuing the same use for those premises;
Building a new 200-seat events/wedding venue beside Oram’s Marine;
Demolishing piers at the existing Pier 21 marina, where 34 vessels are moored. Meehan said those piers must be renewed and will be replaced by 31 berths for much bigger vessels;
Dredging the marina basin area in front of Pier 21 from 2.5m low-tide depth to 3.5m. Retirement village residents will get first dibs on those berths and Meehan expects most to be leased to Northbrook Wynyard Quarter retirement village residents;
Converting the old existing double-height paint shed beside Oram’s Marine into a 250-seat waterfront “boathouse” dining/bar venue, directly facing the water;
Developing what is now the bare flat land between 11 Westhaven Drive and the old paint shed into a resort-style outdoor recreation area for the exclusive use of village residents, with 25m pool, gardens, lounge areas and pergola;
Demolishing most of the shops on the Westhaven Drive/Beaumont St corner around Johnny Wray’s Coffee. Meehan said these didn’t meet seismic standards. New bodega (retail) and maritime retail buildings are planned for this area;
Extending Westhaven waterfront walkway from where it finishes now at Swashbucklers to around the Winton properties to end at the new boathouse restaurant;
Creating a new public laneway/promenade from Beaumont St down to the waterfront, with a new pedestrian crossing to be developed on Beaumont St to connect to that.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
