Newmarket: Urban living without hassles at Broadway Park

By COLIN TAYLOR

Dire predictions of an apartment glut in Auckland in the past few years have consistently fallen on the deaf ears of the developers of Broadway Park in Remuera near the Newmarket commercial district.

The company will finish its nine-storey, 40-unit Joseph Banks apartment complex in a few weeks but no apartments are for sale - they were all pre-sold from plans last year.

Ground has now been broken for the adjoining seven-storey James Cook apartments, also comprising 40 units, which are due to be finished next year. Already 12 have been pre-sold.

Broadway Park, now solely owned by Metlifecare founder Cliff Cook, built its first apartment block in 1996 after buying 9ha between Middleton Rd - which runs off the start of Remuera Rd near Broadway - and the main trunk railway line close to Newmarket railway station.

On the site, the company has already built and sold the six-storey, 21-unit Gifford apartments and the 36-unit D'Urville apartments. Another developer built and sold the 10-storey, 50-unit Ascot apartments on land purchased within Broadway Park.

"There are three big differences between our development and inner-city Auckland apartment developments which have ensured our success," says Broadway Park's general manager, Murray Noble.

"First, we are building for New Zealanders who want a long-term residence and investment - not to the transitory foreign student market.

"Secondly, we're offering a Remuera address within the Auckland Grammar and Epsom Girls school zones. And thirdly, the apartments are in a prime location near the Newmarket shopping district - adjoining the 'Harley St row' of medical specialists and clinics in Remuera Rd - and only a short walk to regular public transport."

Noble says the biggest difference between Broadway Park's apartments and cramped "shoehorn apartments" being built in Auckland's CBD is that the construction is targeted at established Auckland residents who want the apartments to live in and not to rent out.

Some of the freehold apartments are three-bedroom units of 200 sq m and others include two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a study.

Apartments on higher levels facing north have harbour views across Hobson Bay to Rangitoto Island. Most of the apartments are two-bedroom units ranging in size from 112 sq m to 160 sq m. Even one-bedroom units are 100 sq m.

Prices range from $345,000 for a one-bedroom unit on the lower levels to $1,220,000 for 200 sq m penthouse apartments on top floors.

Smaller apartments are popular with single professional or business people, and larger units with families and couples. Older, retired people like the security of being close to medical facilities.

"We also experience a lot of repeat business with purchasers of earlier apartments now buying into new complexes."

Noble says most of the buyers are residents from Auckland's eastern suburbs who are seeking a two-property lifestyle. They want an apartment handy to work and in good school zones close to the city - as well as a holiday home or lifestyle block where they spend the weekends and holidays.

"A typical example of our buyers is a family where the parents are professional or self-employed business people - working Monday to Friday in an office or business in Auckland," says Noble. "Their children attend schools in Epsom or Remuera and the whole family retires to a house on Waiheke Island for the weekends.

"For people in this situation, it's a much easier lifestyle having a city pad rather than struggling to maintain two houses - mowing lawns, weeding, digging the garden, sweeping the drive, painting."

All such chores are catered for within the apartment complex through a body-corporate fee starting at $2500 a year.

Apartment residents also have access to a heated indoor swimming pool, a sauna, a spa, a gymnasium and tennis courts. They are members of a residents' society and have a say in the day-to-day running of the community, including landscaping, tree-planting and parking.

The apartment complexes have been built in a series of no-exit roads named James Cook Crescent, Joseph Banks Terrace, Maui Grove and John Stokes Terrace, running off Middleton Rd.

Because they are not through roads, there is not the problem of incessant traffic noise which often accompanies CBD apartment living.

"It's urban living and not city living," Noble says. "It's a quiet neighbourhood without hoons tearing around in cars. Residents don't have the disadvantages of central city noise but they do have the advantage of being very close to Newmarket with its department stores, supermarkets, shops, cafes, restaurants and cinemas."

Another feature of the development that contrasts with CBD apartment blocks is the generous provision of parking facilities.

The facilities are designed for two-car parking spaces for every apartment and some three-bedroom apartments have three car parks. There is also ample visitor car parking and this, Noble says, represents "a huge difference" from the parking facilities usually offered to CBD apartment dwellers.

For older people who are nervous about city driving and young people without driving licences, it's a short walk to regular Link bus services running through Newmarket to the city and suburbs.

The proposed upgrading of rail services into Auckland's Britomart Centre via Newmarket railway station has handed the development another selling point.

Noble says Westfield's proposed and revamped $300 million mega mall on a 2.8ha site in Newmarket has "proved something of a windfall" for Broadway Park, with plans for 120 shops, restaurants and cafes along with department stores and eight cinemas.

"These days people also look at apartments carefully and give close attention to quality," Noble says. "With this in mind we have display suites showing all the fittings that come within the apartments."

Architects and interior designers have helped some prospective buyers of upper-floor apartments.

"One buyer wanted a single large bedroom suite and the rest as open-plan living space because he was used to the loft atmosphere of living in Soho, in New York," says Noble.

Broadway Park