SCHOOL ZONES:
Westlake Boys and Girls high schools.
CONTACT:
Damien Henaghan, Harcourts, 021 728 003.
Tony Houston and Allan Shanahan have been best mates since they were 6.
They met at Marist Primary School in Mt Albert and have never looked back, with Allan going into architecture and Tony into the rag trade, then they combined to build houses together.
Their business partnership and friendship works because they are different, says Tony from the striking seaview balcony of one of the Milford apartments they have developed on a prime spot by the main road. "Allan's very detailed and I'm very big picture so it works really well."
In 1980 Tony went to live in Melbourne and began renovating old houses and found he was making a better living doing that than he was from the rag trade.
Allan also lived in Australia for a while but when both men returned to Auckland they set up Shanahan & Houston, then closed that company and bought a GJ Gardner homes franchise.
However, for this development -- of four three-bedroom apartments with balconies -- the pair used Meridian Construction because the build is concrete and steel, which is different to their usual timber framed houses.
"Allan designed this and I sort of bring to it, you know, put the icing on the cake really, and the organisational skills."
Underneath the apartments will be a cafe and bakery, and Tony thinks living here will be especially attractive for older people who need to downsize -- but the men set out to blow away any idea that downsizing has to be cramped.
"We deliberately made them big. I live in an apartment in Mission Bay and the problem for empty nesters is that they come from a nice, big 300sq m house, and really, to be honest, the thing they look at is the retirement village up the road.
Image 1 of 8: Empty nesters, listen up. These apartments show downsizing needn't mean moving into a shoebox in a dull area
"You're going from a nice, big house to a two-bedroom shoebox, so we thought, 'Right, we don't want to do that'. We believe there's a real market for lock and leave; something that's nice and big with a nice high ceiling, that's spacious with lots of light and very modern."
Each apartment has room for a large dining table, and has a main bathroom with bath. Master bedrooms feature en suites and walk-in wardrobes.
The location is ideal -- from the apartments you can walk the dog down to the beach or play tennis at the club up the road, and Lake Pupuke and the Takapuna public pool are not far away either.
Tony once thought older people wanted nothing more than a quiet cul-de-sac, but now he reckons they don't want that at all.
"They want to be right here because they can see everything that's going on and they love it, they just want to be part of the action.
"The doctor's just around the corner and the petrol station's there [across the road], the Thai takeaway's there and the cafes are there, you can buy a dress across the road and the Westfield supermarket's just down the road."
They have gone for top quality European appliances and the thickest, highest quality solution-dyed nylon carpets, so plush you could sleep on them.
Gated access ensures security and a lift offers extra convenience.
Says Tony: "It's got a lot going for it and, moving forward, this will be what Auckland will be more like and I don't see any downside to it.
