A Parnell developer is hoping to bring back the glory days of the upmarket Auckland strip with a new place where visitors can eat, drink, sing, dance and be merry. Jane Phare drops in on
Remember the VBG and Iguacu? A new chic hospitality venue is part of Parnell’s rebirth
Jane Phare
That plan also made him a very rich man as Parnell, in the 1980s and beyond, became Auckland’s hip place to hang out. It is Harvey’s legacy, City Construction that was passed to his three children, Kevin, Tom and Nancy. Now Kevin Harvey, 70, who runs the company, wants to leave his own legacy in the form of 269 Parnell.
To any other seasoned property developer, intent on decent returns on investment, Harvey’s vision might seem a flight of fantasy, a little bit mad even. He’s spending $8.5 million on creating a mostly open-air space where people can come together to eat tapas, sip on a glass of wine, smell the smoky aroma of food being cooked over fire, listen to music, dance the salsa, watch festival movies on quiet nights, attend fashion shows, theatre and opera, and buy market food. He has top chefs lined up, the type who cook for the love of it, he says. He wants a coffee kiosk, a fabulous gelato counter, candelabras and somewhere he can buy a Portuguese custard tart so he doesn’t have to go to the Matakana market.
Near the entrance is a stylish timber-and-glass kiosk for wine and beer in which the permanent food vendors will have a share. Guests will be able to buy a decent-sized glass of wine for $11 and enjoy the ambience, soaking up the sights and smells of street food - Mexican, Portuguese, Italian, Israeli, Lebanese. By his own admission, it’s all quite fanciful; he’s been too extravagant and thinks if he was working for a developer he’d probably get fired, describing 269 Parnell as his “total folly”.