Megan Paine and Mark McGuinness of Willis Bond at 30 Madden. Photo / Dean Purcell
Megan Paine and Mark McGuinness of Willis Bond at 30 Madden. Photo / Dean Purcell
Only two of 90 new units in the tallest block built in the Wynyard Quarter are left to be sold, although buyers couldn't move in before Christmas.
Mark McGuinness of developer Willis Bond said the 12-level building, a block from the waterfront, had sold extremely well. By mid-December, only twounits were left unsold although the block wouldn't be ready for occupation till early 2021.
"The building is finished but we waiting on Auckland Council. We got practical completion on November 26 but we're waiting on code compliance certificates and titles to be issued. It's unfortunate, but that's the nature of the process," said McGuinness.
"It would be great if we could come up with a different process," he said standing in an 11-floor penthouse in the building between Beaumont S, Daldy St, Tiramarama Way and Madden St.
The land is owned by Panuku Development Auckland. Instead of regular leasehold fees, apartment purchase prices are prepaying that ground rent for 128 years.
"We paid freehold value for the land. It was a requirement of Panuku that it come back to the site long-term. There's a good faith obligation on year 90 to extend," McGuinness said.
The outdoor terrace at 30 Madden. Photo / Dean Purcell
"In Wellington, we sold hundreds of apartments on the same tenure so it's just fine."
All four top levels entire-floor penthouses with 360-degree views are sold. Neither McGuinness nor Paine would say what those places fetched, although that is understood to be under $10m each.
A ground-floor three-bedroom place spread over three levels is for sale for $2.4m.
Penthouses of around 250sq m in the stage two block yet to be built are going for $5m to $6m each, Paine said.
"What's amazing is that even with Covid, stage one will soon be done and dusted," McGuinness said referring to around 2700 people who had worked on the project built by L.T. McGuinness, owned by family interests.
Shops and marine service space have been developed at ground level. Stage two is projected to take 18 months to build.
Willis Bonds plans further Wynyard Quarter apartments. All up, the business plans to build about 600 places in the area, worth about $800m.
Mark McGuinness and Megan Paine inside 30 Madden. Photo / Dean Purcell
When it comes to rising sea levels, McGuinness says the business takes account of what could happen.
"Basically, you make sure you're up high enough. You don't build within a few inches of the water. We design our buildings to cope with spring tides, for example at Clyde Quay Wharf where we have a carpark under the wharf. There's engineering to cope with that being full of water. There's change, but the blunt reality is no one knows the exact details so we just take the best advice we can buy and apply that to our buildings," he said.
Cafes, shops and 164 apartments and townhouses at Wynyard are already occupied in Willis Bond's 113-unit Wynyard Central and the 51-unit 132 Halsey.
Although 30 Madden has that name, that's not the address you use to get into the building when walking into it. Instead, 70 Daldy St is the main lobby entranceway and that's clearly marked as the downstairs pedestrian entranceway.
McGuinness acknowledge that only cars could enter off Madden St into the internal non-public carpark.
"The whole site faces three streets including 30 Madden St. It has a number of different entrances, one of which is 70 Daldy St, plus a number of entrances on Madden and Beaumont Sts. The sheer size of the development has meant that there will always be multiple entrances," he explained.
