Fletcher Living's ex-Winstone Quarry site: Caldera apartments (far left) with new soccer field in the centre. Photo / Michael Craig
Opponents once said it was too deep for housing, would flood when the water table rose, be covered in mist due to being low-lying and they feared noise, dust, traffic, and land subsidence.
Ten blocks of 11-level-high units were planned to cascade down the edge of the former Three Kings Winstone quarry to such an extent that lifts would be needed at the new hub for 1800 new residences.
But the scheme has been downsized to the point where Fletcher Living now plans 700 residences at the 15.1ha site where it is completing the first homes in the centre of the ex-quarry.
“We have seen a reduction in apartments because the metrics don’t support it,” explains residential development chief executive Steve Evans of Fletcher Living of lower intensity of development.
The first group of 30 terrace homes is in the heart of the site off Mt Eden Rd and Grahame Breed Drive.
But don’t call that site at the centre the “floor” of the ex-quarry.
Evans instead uses the term “riu”, te reo Māori for the core of the body or the hull of a canoe.
That language helps shift people’s thinking away from building in an ex-quarry, more towards considering the creation of a new community on an undulating site where land is being stabilised via 3m to 4m deep mounds of earth dumped onto sites for up to six months to compact soil.
“We’re getting to the point where you don’t consider it a quarry floor. So the level we chose is the right balance between being part of the undulation of Tāmaki Makaurau and not having the accusation of we are building in a hole,” Evans says.
He compares the site with the larger Stonefields, saying when there, you don’t feel like you’re in an ex-quarry.
That site was also Winstone land.
Last decade, the community was alarmed when Winstone Aggregates general manager Bernie Chote talked about 1800 homes.
That was subsequently reduced to 1200 to 1500 homes up to six levels high but still the community was alarmed, particularly by the cascading apartments at the edge.
The quarry was then 34m deep but Fletcher spent some years recontouring the land in preparation for the new community.
Evans said to be able to build there, the floor of the quarry was raised 10m to 15m and he acknowledges the years of work to contour the land to remove the once-sharp delineation between the edge and the floor.
It has built on some of the quarry perimeter but far less intensely than what it wanted last decade.
Evans indicated that was to meet market demand and create a liveable community.
New homes fronting the football field are in the $1m-plus brackets.
The three-level terraces in the heart are:
All new homes at the quarry come with Fletcher’s $25,000 “cash gift” to buyers.
The football field and a playground are developed and planted in the heart of one of Auckland’s wealthier areas.
What do the once-vocal opponents think now?
Garry Bryant was last decade the Three Kings United Group president, prominent in community opposition to the scale of the quarry housing plans.
“It’s good,” Bryant said of what Fletcher has built so far.
“They needed to do something sensible and that’s what they’re doing. All our efforts paid off,” Bryant says of down-sized plans.
He recalls a long tussle with Fletcher and remains critical today about what he says is a lack of information to the community about what’s happening.
But overall, he is impressed with the look of the scheme so far and expressed a very different view from those he held in opposition.
Bryant has been taken aback by the company’s move to build in the centre of the former quarry.
However, he is pleased to see the apartments at the edge aren’t cascading down the side and are three levels high, not 11.
“What happened to the lift?” he asked about previous plans to install that to help people get from one level to another.
Lifts aren’t needed and Evans instead pointed to stairs and disabled access through gardens beside new apartments from the ex-quarry floor to Grahame Breed Drive.
Evans says the Puketāpapa Local Board supports Fletcher’s plans, including its aims to recognise and restore the mana of Te Tatua o Riukiuta/Big King and enhance the public open space network via its plans.
He expects code compliance certificates for the first 30 terrace homes by next year’s first quarter.
Greg McKeown, a former councillor and once a member of Three Kings Community Action, praised Fletcher’s work: “People are saying this is a good development. Good on Steve Evans for making it happen after changes were achieved which were good.”
McKeown recalls the battle: “The community action was successful in getting some big design changes. We had a 10-day Environment Court hearing which resulted in levels of the soccer field being changed and the direction of the slope changed. That was more logical.”
So how is the overall scheme built so far selling?
Evans said the company has 35 completed homes for sale and more perimeter housing will rise soon.
And no, apartments are not planned to cascade down the cliff face of the ex-quarry.
Evans says to achieve development of the former sides of the pit, a building platform of land is created part-way up the slope and stabilised over many months.
Homes are then built on that stabilised platform of earth.
McGeown praised those “bridges” which ensure less visual impact of the apartments at the edges.
Evans said around 400 new homes, including stand-alone places, will be built in the centre while around 300 will be around the edge.
As for the $25,000 which Fletcher is offering buyers as a discount, Evans describes that as a way to stimulate interest across the market.
And he acknowledges the housing downturn has taken its toll.
“It affects us in other developments but not to the same extent here because you are selling completed homes, not developments,” he said.
And not all the new homes are $1m-plus.
A one-bedroom Caldera apartment went for $615,000. Two-bedroom terraced homes on the south-east of the site went for $800,000.
Fletcher Living has 23 sites in Auckland and Christchurch and Evans expects the division to build 1000 homes in the year to June 30, 2025.
Last month’s annual shareholders’ meeting presentation showed house sales taking 17 weeks in the first half of the June 30, 2025 year, less than the previous 23 weeks they took to sell in 2024′s first half. But annual margins were lower due to house prices continuing to decline in the last six months.
The residential and development division sold 617 homes in 2023 but 886 in 2024 which the company called a “resilient performance given house price pressure and fewer transactions” in 2024′s last half.
Fletcher Residential reported ebit of $94m, down from $112m in FY23, so while there was an increase in sales volumes there was a reduction in earnings, mirroring the broader market.
“The business has acquired land effectively, controls a pipeline of circa 4200 lots, and is recognised for building high-quality masterplanned communities. Market valuation of land on balance sheet at June 24 is circa $265 million higher than book value,” it said.
Now it is investigating joint ventures with others on the house-building front.
“Fletcher Building considers it is the right time to explore capital partnership options for residential and development, to invest in and drive the next phase of the business’ success. Fletcher Building has engaged Jarden to explore these capital partnership options with both local and international investors,” it said in this year’s annual investor presentation.
A spokesman said the business already “has six joint venture agreements with various iwi in Tāmaki Makaurau but also in other forms of providing capital as the division continues to grow. We will continue to explore these options as we go through the rest of this financial year, and beyond.”
Fletcher shares are trading around $3.18, down 28% annually.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
'I can imagine people being outraged that TVNZ signed a deal with me.'