Developer John Love of Love and Co. talks to the Herald about NZ's biggest office-to-apartment conversion - luxury units hit the market. Video / Alex Burton
An eighteenth-floor Auckland CBD penthouse, more than twice the size of most Kiwi homes, is being marketed for $16.5 million.
Developer John Love of Love & Co is offering the 550sq m top floor of Aotea Square’s The CAB apartment building.
Up to six bedrooms are possible, dependingon the configuration and uses of the rooms but the buyer might want to work from home and use some spaces for offices, a boardroom, a media room or PA’s base, he said.
An 18cm sub-floor void allows for pipes and cables to be changed if the new owner wants - a feature by Love’s wife and interior designer Josephine Love to give buyers more flexibility in how the penthouse is fitted out.
The CAB is the ex-Civic Administration Building office of Auckland Council, a grade A listed heritage building, converted into 114 apartments in work by Naylor Love, occupied since last winter.
* The level 18 penthouse with views to the north, south, east and west
Love said the penthouse with a 3m stud height was unusual because it had a central outdoor courtyard, enclosed on four sides by the apartment itself. That is a heritage feature which had to be protected under the resource consent he was granted to convert the offices into residential.
The CAB from its exterior - 23 units are left to sell by developer John Love. Photo / Alex Burton
“This is our luxury residence,” he said, taking the Herald on the penthouse tour last week, showing off four bathrooms and a dimly-lit powder room beside the entrance lift.
The penthouse was designed with a family in mind but also for working from home. Unlike anything else in Australasia, there’s a 90sq m sky garden courtyard open to the air but closed in on four sides with panoramic views of the city.
Asked if he was concerned about the residential market downturn and the length of time taken to sell the most expensive apartments, Love said: “We knew this would sell when it was finished.”
Entrance lobby, outdoor courtyard and kitchen area of the luxury level 18 apartment in The CAB. Photo / Alex Burton
Foreign buyers - except Australians and Singaporeans - are banned from purchasing New Zealand residential property after last decade’s law change.
But they are allowed to buy units in The CAB. Love gained consent granted under the Overseas Investment Act due to The CAB qualifying for an exemption. Love says around 10 apartments in The CAB have gone to foreign owners “but some are using this as a holiday base”, he said, citing Tahitians who are here for months at a time.
The unit has wood floors, floor-to-ceiling glass, a dark kitchen with marble and wood benchtops, and a statement modern chandelier commissioned by interior designer Josephine Love.
Heritage 90sq m sky garden outdoor courtyard in the centre of the $16.5m penthouse apartment at The Cab. Photo / Alex Burton
A master suite has a dressing room bigger than most bedrooms, a twin-basin bathroom and the bath positioned by a window for the best views.
Love says the style is functional, modern design but with a touch of practical elegance. Four car parks are in the basement level off Greys Ave.
“This is the most challenging project that I’ve undertaken,” Love said of the building conversion, “and probably one of the most challenging in the history of adaptive reuse in commercial construction in New Zealand”.
The Civic Administration Building was built in 1966 and was NZ’s tallest building when it was finished, with asbestos insulation and fire protection which had to be removed after Love bought it.
Exterior deck overlooking Aotea Square within the level 18 penthouse at The Cab. That unit is for sale for $16.5m. Photo / Alex Burton
All 18 levels of floors had to be removed because Love found they were only 8cm thick. Floors are now 13cm thick and tray deck bases with reinforcing, then concrete poured over the top. All the reconstruction work has meant the building is now 100 per cent of new building standard, Love said.
“It’s a brand new building, built off an existing steel frame. It had thin floors. We enhanced the resilience of the building with new floors,” he said.
Those new floors had slightly stiffened the frame.
Engineering work was by Beca and the new double-glazed curtain glass wall was by Henderson-headquartered Thermosash, many bathroom fittings and fixtures came from Auckland’s Franklins European Bathrooms, and wool carpets are from Bremworth.
“Thermosash had never done anything like this before,” Love said, showing how in loggia or indoor/outdoor rooms, the top half of windows slide back to bring fresh air into apartments.
Looking out from the level 18 penthouse at The CAB, Aotea Square. Photo / Alex Burton
Love is proud to have worked with so many New Zealand businesses, saying most large new apartments in Auckland are by overseas businesses and use many materials from overseas. He questions how body corporates in those blocks will fare if something goes wrong but says The CAB will be different.
Love’s wife Josephine commissioned art and designed the interiors. Public area carpets were designed by artist Shane Cotton. His work references the Waihorotiu Stream or the Queen Street River that once ran down the Queen St gully in the Auckland CBD.
Love said ex-Auckland mayor Phil Goff had visited the building which has already won many awards and has its own heated basement pool, gym and games/communal area for apartment residents to meet.
He acknowledged “harsh words” when he bought the building for $3m but said he was extremely proud of what had since been achieved which included providing base structures for other buildings in his Civic Quarter redevelopment.
“We built through a pandemic and lockdowns where we couldn’t come to work and the building had to sit idle. We’ve had significant changes to the property landscape, the foreign buyer ban, two changes to the brightline test and we’ve also survived three successive Labour Governments.”
* Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, having won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
