All set up and ready to go
Donna McIntyre finds the best of both worlds in this centrally located mezzanine apartment
Buying this multi- level space in the Hudson Brown Apartments meant Giny Grass could combine home and running her IT software business at the same address. She bought the south- east facing mezzanine apartment, plus ground floor area large enough for two modern work spaces, in 2006. Purchasing off the plans meant she could design the interior layout and select the soft furnishings.
“I could combine both living and business into the one location, with one cost.”
Giny and her partner lived in the Lance Herbstdesigned leasehold apartment for eight years.
“The upstairs apartment is modern and very well equipped,” she says.
“The high stud design made it a light, spacious, and comfortable place to live.
“Being a boutique development, not a high rise, it is private and quiet, even though it’s inner CBD. The traffic around the crescent is minimal, and I seldom saw other residents.”
She also appreciated looking out at the architecture of the old railway building and the greeness of Te Taou Reserve.
” My favourite time was waking in the morning, seeing the park, and watching the city come to life. I absolutely loved just walking downstairs to work and not having to tackle Auckland traffic.”
And she could easily walk to the Viaduct, the Vector Arena — or Parnell for weekend brunches
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CONTACT: ON THE WEB: and shopping. “The special view coming back at night, just at bottom of Parnell Rise, the skyline of Auckland City is breathtaking,” she says.
Her mezzanine apartment has a large bedroom, open plan lounge and kitchen, and a bathroom with washing machine and dryer tucked behind the door.
Giny used the main office downstairs — a few easy steps up off the street — as a support call centre, and the second office for group training and meetings. The ground- floor space, with its own bathroom and kitchen, had room for her 10 staff.
Data cabling is throughout with a computer/ telephone server cupboard. Both offices are air- conditioned. Another plus was the concrete- and- brick building’s lock- and- leave aspect, meaning Giny could shut the door, leave her car in the secure underground park and fly to Australia when required for business trips. “It was perfect, and very secure,” she says. “The windows are double- glazed and we also had them bullet- proofed, so that plus the security alarms meant I always felt extremely safe.”
Giny’s business in Australia has now grown to the point where she has relocated her office there, leasing her Hudson Brown property for $ 850 a week to people who also live in the apartment and run their business downstairs.
“One tenant had a fashion design business. She used the back office as her work space and the large front office as a show room for clients to view samples.”
For that reason Giny thinks this property will appeal to a business person wanting to reduce costs and combine office and their home.
“I could also see it suiting someone wanting a satellite office in Auckland with the advantage of being able to save on hotels.”