Could things be looking up in New Lynn soon, if a landmark new tower rises? New image and all the details; Westgate’s success continues with four new major-brand food outlets nearly finished and soon to open; Chinese must get approval to buy residential land but one company bought at Belmont
Property Insider: 25-level LynnMall tower details released; Westgate food hub rises; Chinese bought NZ land without prior approval, sought retrospective consent
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But it has said little since announcing in 2021 that it planned to build there. Who’s involved wasn’t widely known and there was little New Lynn action from Kiwi’s camp.
Here is a new image of that tower from the consent application, granted non-notified – or without anyone in the public arena knowing – by Auckland Council on May 23, 2022. Property Insider sought the documents from Kiwi and its spokesman supplied them.
Auckland’s Aston Mitchell architects, Melbourne’s i2C Architects and London’s Ryder Architects designed the tower for 3060 Great North Rd. Boffa Miskell, Woods, Marshall Day Acoustics, Tonkin & Taylor, Commute Transportation Consultants and Barker & Associates were other expert consultants who worked on Kiwi’s plans.
The planned building by the company headed by long-term CEO Clive Mackenzie starts with a five-level mezzanine block and then narrows above that in what would be the biggest change in New Lynn in many years.
Only part of the existing LynnMall would be demolished: one corner under the footprint of the new tower.
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Ground-level shops and cafe areas, offices from levels one to three, car parking on level four [75 spaces for apartment tenants], then long-term rental apartments from levels five to 23 are shown on the plans. Approval was granted by duty commissioner David Wren partly because Kiwi’s site is well-serviced by public transport. It is across the road from the New Lynn Train Station and bus interchange.
The tower is proposed along with the refurbishment of the existing main entrance to LynnMall fronting Memorial Dr, the consent said.
“In terms of positive effects, the proposal will contribute towards the creation of much-needed housing and particularly the housing choice available within this area and efficiently use the land to accommodate additional density that is sought by the Auckland Unitary Plan with quality amenity to the street and local community. The combination of proposed activities together with the architectural design and materiality will create the landmark in this location anticipated by the AUP,” the 2022 decision said.
The proposal is “to construct a 25-storey development comprised of a five-storey retail, office and parking podium, with two residential buildings above with associated earthworks and street tree removal, upgrade existing crossings, provide new parking areas, stormwater and wastewater connection, new stormwater management device”.
But why wait two years and still not begin?
That has some in the industry calling for action. But a Kiwi spokesman indicated the company first wanted to see how its new 295-unit $200 million Resido at Sylvia Park went before it began digging further west.
“Our initial focus is successfully launching Resido and proving-up the concept, after which we’ll look at new opportunities, such as LynnMall.”
After all, BTR is an experience for the landlord which has traditionally only owned shops, offices and warehouses – never residential until it built Resido in three towers up to 12 levels. So New Lynn would be nearly double that height.
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BTR is in an expansion phase with Simplicity Living and New Ground also active.
Simplicity, for example, plans to build, own and manage 10,000 BTR units within a decade and has made a quick start, laying its first floor slab at its 297-unit Reiputa on ex-Foodstuffs North Island flat land at 80 Mt Wellington Highway.
How could Kiwi fund New Lynn? The company should be getting some money soon with its currently-conditional $458m sale of Shortland St’s Vero Centre to as-yet-unnamed Hong Kong-Chinese interests, conditional on Overseas Investment Office approval.
Cash coming in... ready to go soon at New Lynn? Kiwi has its hopes on Resido right now.
Takeaways with your fuel?
Mark Gunton continues to expand Auckland’s Westgate shopping centre this time with a line-up of popular new dining outlets.
The shops are up beside Costco Fuel Westgate which is almost diagonally opposite Costco Wholesale.
These are the quick-service restaurant offerings for brands owned by NZX-listed Restaurant Brands and Tahua Partners.
KFC, Carls Jr., Taco Bell and Starbucks now stand beside each other in the new building nearing completion by Legacy Construction.
Starbucks opened on Friday and the others will open shortly.
KFC already has an existing Westgate store at Massey, on Don Buck Rd, but whether that will continue in what is essentially the “old Westgate” on the city side of the project is unknown.
In many other places around the world, Costco Fuel traditionally has fast food offerings nearby.
Chinese bought housing site without prior approval
Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (Linz) said a majority foreign-owned company bought 766sq m of Auckland residential land without approval.
That is needed due to New Zealand’s ban on foreigners buying houses or housing sites. The only exemptions are Australians and Singaporeans.
And the revelation about what the Chinese business did came about in a strange backward sort of way.
The Chinese business paid $2.6m for 16 Williamson Ave, Belmont, North Shore. This is an increasingly popular street for multi-unit residential housing, replacing single stand-alone homes after Auckland Unitary Plan upzoning. The site at 16 Williamson Ave is beside 14 Williamson Ave, also part of the apartment development.
Star Jasmine Development [87 per cent Chinese, 13 per cent New Zealand] should have sought approval to buy 16 Williamson Ave, Linz said when it released the decision last week.
But it was only when the owner applied for consent to amalgamate those two titles that it became obvious what it had done.
“The applicant is a property development company, ultimately majority-owned by a Chinese citizen. This is retrospective consent as the applicant acquired the land without consent and subsequently applied for consent to amalgamate the titles for 14 and 16 Williamson Ave. Linz considered that the breach was inadvertent and required the applicant to apply for retrospective consent for the original purchase,” the decision said.
Star Jasmine built eight new units on the land.
Apartments on that site have long ago been sold and people have been living there for around two years, so it was unusual that the purchase only came to light in the decision reached in April and made public last month. The property vendor was Darbin Wang.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
