The Takapuna Boating Club was first established at Shoal Bay in 1914, at the outset of the First World War.
"After the war, the club acquired a mooring area to the west of the ferry wharf and started planning to build a clubhouse," O'Brien says.
"In 1923, the club bought the old Irelands Tannery building in Panmure to salvage its timber, paying £350 including food and transport for the workers.
"Over several weekends, club members demolished the building and barged all the timber to Bayswater. They then immediately set about building the clubhouse.
"Three professional builders worked on the building week days, while club members pitched in on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons. A team of 25 men worked tirelessly to pour concrete on Saturdays, regardless of rain and tide. The three-storey building was finally completed after five months of intensive labour."
The site was gifted to the club by an Act of Parliament in 1926, and the clubhouse quickly became an important focal point for the local community.
In the late 1920s, the clubhouse hosted boxing matches, regular dances, school concerts, jazz performances, lectures and sports events. It was also used as a polling booth for national and local elections.
The clubhouse remained popular in the 1960s as a dance hall, with regular parties hosted in the top floor loft. Patrons would catch the ferry from the city and alight at Bayswater wharf, a short walk from the clubhouse.
Takapuna Boating Club hosted major regattas at Shoal Bay until the late 1960s, when the club moved to a clubhouse on Takapuna Beach.
The Bayswater clubhouse has since been used as a sailing venue for learners, a windsurf hire business and school, a sail loft, and an Optimist-class yacht building venue.
The building adjoins a saltwater swimming pool, established by the then Takapuna Borough Council, that flushes with the tide.
The pool has fallen out of use, but remains in place as it provides foundational support and erosion protection for the clubhouse.
The building now has Category B heritage protection, which allows for it to be fully redeveloped on the interior while preserving its exterior.
Colliers' capital markets national director Peter Herdson says the Coastal Marina zoned property is available with vacant possession.
"The property is superbly positioned within the affluent North Shore suburb of Bayswater, making it ideal for a prime waterfront apartment conversion," he says.
"Well-known for its relaxed lifestyle and unique village atmosphere, Bayswater offers numerous parks, a primary school and a tennis club.
"The suburb is in a central position in between the prominent Takapuna and Devonport centres. Auckland CBD is a short seven-minute ferry ride away."
Herdson says the clubhouse is "a boatie's dream" thanks to its location right next to the Bayswater Marina.
Fellow director John Green says Takapuna Boating Club is selling the property reluctantly as the funds required to fully restore it would be better spent elsewhere.
"An Auckland Council heritage architect has visited the property and advised that redevelopment into private apartments would be a reasonable way to ensure its preservation."
