The first of a group of controversial, tall apartment towers will soon begin to rise around the Milford Shopping Centre on Auckland's North Shore.
Campbell Barbour, chief executive of NZ Retail Property Group, speaking as part of the Business Herald's Meet the CEOs video interview series, about big schemes including his company's $1 billion Westgate plans, but he also revealed that permission to build at Milford was being sought from Auckland Council.
"The first block will be in the carpark site. We're applying for consents and hope to get that within the next six to eight weeks," he said.
Residents tried to stop the apartment scheme but the Environment Court allowed the towers up to 12 levels on top of the mall and around its exterior in the carpark.
"Milford is our biggest story for 2015 and it's going to be really interesting in terms of Auckland going up versus out, but here we're wanting to build 250 high-quality apartments in a town centre in a market-attractive location so we think it ticks all the boxes," Barbour said.
