More apartments for America's Cup base

By ANNE GIBSON

More new apartments are about to be built at the Viaduct Basin in Auckland, home base for the America's Cup campaign.

Construction of the second stage of The Point apartment in the Viaduct Basin is getting closer.

An application to modify existing resource consent to build a further 73 units in two blocks near the water's edge goes to the Auckland City Council today.

Dominion Funds - a property syndicator associated with Doug Somers-Edgar of Money Managers - has applied to build two five-level blocks of units at 27 Pakenham St, with cafes and shops on the ground floor and basement parking underneath.

In a separate development, Symphony Group is about to demolish the old City Markets building and build The Parc in the Viaduct Basin.

The 15 five-storey apartment blocks will bring a further 113 units to the area and are costing $45 million to build.

The Dominion units are projected to be worth $29 million, according to a Dominion spokesman.

The new Point development will be behind the existing Point apartments on a vacant lot.

Paul Duffy, general manager of Fletcher Properties for 10 years and closely associated with the original Point development, is now chief executive of Dominion Funds.

The multimillion-dollar development is on a 2863 sq m site fronting Pakenham St and Customs St West and on land leased from Viaduct Harbour Holdings.

"This development is stage two of The Point apartments, which has been constructed on the adjoining site at 43 Pakenham St," says Dominion's planning application made to the council.

The new block would appear to be part of the existing development, the application said.

Consent was given for the development on December 1, 1999, but Dominion is seeking changes, including deleting two rooftop projections and changing the vehicle access to basement car parking.

"Currently, the site is largely unused and is occupied by several buildings and a car park which was used during the development of the first stage of The Point apartments," the application says.

Plans were submitted from architects Craig Craig Moller which "showed two distinct blocks separated at the corner by a lobby and lift area which is primarily glass clad".

The design would "break up the bulk of the building and avoid a monolithic appearance".

Allan Kirk of the council's central area planning division assessed the application and said more information was needed on signage for the new development and design details of basement floor ventilation grilles.

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