Hot property on the park

Apartment development The Vulcan, 1 Halsey St, Victoria Quarter

THE VULCAN, 1 HALSEY ST, VICTORIA QUARTER.

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ON OFFER: Boutique luxury development of 38 freehold apartments in two towers designed by Leuschke Group. Opposite Victoria Park with varying park, city and harbour views; includes podium commercial space and some basement car parking.

OPTIONS: A) 1-bed, 1-bath + flexi-room apartment, 55sq m (plus 5sq m balcony) priced from $625,000-$745,000. B) 2-bed, 1-bath apartment, 62sq m (plus 8sq m balcony) priced from $755,000-$845,000. C) 2-bed, 2-bath apartment with courtyard, 76sq m (plus 26sq m courtyard) priced at $840,000. D) 2-bed, 2-bath apartment, 86-98sq m (plus 12-13sq m balcony) priced from $1.2 million-$1.845 million — most including 1 car park.

INSPECT: Display suite onsite open Sat/Sun 2-5pm; weekdays 3-6pm.

ON THE WEB: http://www.thevulcan.co.nz/

SCHOOL ZONES: Freemans Bay School, Ponsonby Intermediate, Western Springs College, Auckland Girls’ Grammar.

CONTACT: Trent Quinton, 021 894 070, or Ben Meiring, 021 708 083, Bayleys

BODY CORP: Average approx $3500 pa.

Boutique freehold apartment development The Vulcan draws inspiration from the foundry that was, until recently, operating on its site opposite Victoria Park.

Leuschke Group's design for the new development currently being sold off the plans proffers two towers, one park-side and one city-side. It is named after the Roman god of fire, and Neil Salter, one of the directors of Plutus Holdings Limited -- the parent company behind this project -- says the design's upmarket edgy metallic aesthetic carries on a long history of matters metallic at the address.

Plutus purchased the long, narrow site running between Halsey St and Dock St in July of this year when the Millar family relocated their metal workshop and foundry (on site since the 1920s but established in 1903) away from the low stucco Millar Paterson Building to Penrose.

Neil says: "I first put an offer in on that building about 12 years ago but they didn't want to sell. It's a great dual-frontage site in a fantastic spot.

"Primarily this development is location driven, being in an amazing location right opposite Victoria Park. It is handy to so many amenities and has views of the park, the city and of the harbour bridge and harbour from upper levels.

"The location set the base and then we developed a scheme to separate us from the masses, to offer more personality than your typical development with some edginess reflected in the buildings' design."

He felt confident Leuschke Group were the best architects to conceive the design. He'd worked with them before on other projects including Plutus development Atelier, now under way in Kingsland.

Image 1 of 5: New freehold development The Vulcan has an edgy aesthetic.

The Leuschke design for the concrete building integrates a series of proportional boxes. A bold, bronze frame on the Halsey St frontage helps define a vertical one reflecting the park across the road. Neil believes the use of metallic frit glass on balconies, seen in high-end retail stores overseas, will be striking. This balcony glass will integrate a metallic pattern graduating from dense to sparse as it rises, offering privacy from passers by, while allowing residents good views out.

The Vulcan's lobby will be on Dock St, the quiet no-exit street running between the site and one side of the newish Spark building, which has its main entrance on Victoria Street West.

This location puts The Vulcan just around the corner from Les Mills, with Victoria Park New World nearby in the other direction. It'll be about five minutes walk from the Viaduct and the CBD and not much more to Britomart or Ponsonby.

With an abundance of hip dining, entertainment, shopping and public transport nearby, Neil believes this will be the Auckland version of living park-side in New York.

He sees New York aesthetics in some of Leuschke's interior decor, which makes use of materials such as exposed concrete on intertenancy walls and concrete-look tiles.

Interiors are offered in lighter or darker colour-way choices.

All 38 dwellings across the two towers will have balconies the width of apartments, bar one residence, which will have its own courtyard as outdoor living.

There are 14 one-bedroom plus flexi-room apartments and 24 two-bedroom apartments, many of which have two bathrooms. As a general guideline, dwelling prices increase park-side and as levels rise.

Some of the premium two-bedroom dwellings include a car park in their price. A display suite has been set up in the Millar Paterson Building, which has been painted grey and will be demolished before construction commences. Work is scheduled to start in January next year for completion in the last quarter of 2018.