Work starts today on one of Auckland's most controversial sites, as a supermarket giant begins transforming the chasm of Ponsonby's Soho Square into a shopping, office and apartment precinct.
Progressive Enterprises' property general manager, Adrian Walker, said work was beginning on the 1.3ha site on the corner of Pollen St and Williamson Ave to build a new Countdown and create the retail and business precinct.
The project would be one of the biggest in Auckland, with a total investment of more than $200 million of which half would come from Progressive, he said.
The project is called Vinegar Lane as a tribute to the old DYC vinegar factory that once stood on the site.
A 4200sq m Countdown, shops, office space and 680 carparks will be built on the fenced site which has stood vacant since it was excavated by over-ambitious developer Layne Kells in 2008.