Quest banks on region with new apartments

PRIME SPOT: An artist's impression of a serviced apartment building with five shops on the ground floor to be built in the centre of Whangarei. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

A $9.5 million three-storey serviced apartment building with five shops on the ground floor and a carpark basement will be built on the corner of Bank and Cameron Sts in Whangarei.

The 34 studio, one-bed and two-bed rooms in the 1900sq m accommodation section of the building will be operated by Quest Serviced Apartments, which has more than 150 hotel apartments in New Zealand, Fiji and Australia.

Quest Whangarei will have a reception area on the ground floor and 13 car parks for guests beneath.

The five shops, covering a total of 1500sq m, which are expected to attract food retail tenants as 37,000 people pass the Bank and Cameron Sts corner daily.

Construction of the new building - replacing the arcade at the Bank St entrance to Farmers - will start before Christmas with all but the ground floor being demolished. The project is expected to be completed by the end of next year.

The development is being carried out by Canvas Investments, of Auckland, whose chief executive officer Murray Alcock said ownership of the site, now held by companies controlled by him and his business colleague Allister Knight, would soon transfer to project investors, who were from outside Whangarei.

The 1037sq m project site at 78 Bank St has a land value of $910,000 and a capital value of $2.1m on the Whangarei District Council rating website.

Council economic development manager Peter Gleeson said awareness of the short supply of high quality accommodation in Whangarei was raised during the bid for the Fifa U-20 World Cup New Zealand 2015.

"This project will help support the local economy with confirmation local contractors will be used for construction," he said. "As a franchise, all profits from Quest's business will stay in the community."