Ideas abound for seaside site
What is believed to be the largest remaining privately-owned block of land overlooking Orewa beach in the seaside suburb just north of Auckland has been placed on the market for sale.
The property at 387-391 Hibiscus Coast Highway is a rectangularshaped 3851sq m landholding adjacent to Kinloch Reserve, and has been ‘flagged’ as a prime location for a high-end intensive housing development.
The site — zoned mixed housing suburban and residential single house under the Auckland Unitary Plan — now houses the 16-unit Edgewater Motel which has been operating from the site for more than three decades.
However, Auckland Council’s mixed housing suburban zoning permits the building of a more intensified dwelling configuration — such as apartments. The Hibiscus Coast Highway land was last year granted resource consent for a 35-unit residential development — with the consent transferable to any new land owner.
The consent for 387-391 Hibiscus Coast Highway allows for the construction of a four-storey luxury apartment development, with an additional level of underground basement car parking.
The property is being marketed for sale by tender through Bayleys Orewa, with tenders closing at 4pm on April 26. The marketing is being overseen by Bayleys Orewa salespeople Simon Wilde, Lynnette Thomas, and Chris Bayley of Bayleys Auckland, and it features in Bayleys’ latest Total Property portfolio.
Wilde says the beachfront landholding encompassed four separate titles — meaning that while the mixed housing suburban zoning allowed for an intensive medium-rise development opportunity, the property might also be subdivided into smaller sections capable of sustaining individual stand-alone or terraced home development. Other options for the property could include retirement living, daycare, a timeshare development, or redevelopment of the existing motel.
“Whatever the intentions of any potential new owner, the existing commercial accommodation premises operating from the site will deliver holding income over any intervening period,” he said.
“In addition to the transfer of the resource consent, any potential sale of the land would include the existing consented development plans for the site. The initial preparatory phase of hard work has been completed and is ready to be handed over to a developer.”
The current owners of 387-391 Hibiscus Coast Highway are also the operators of the Edgewater Motel business.
The Edgewater’s inventory consists of 16 units comprising studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units; along with two free-standing family options.
The property also has a separate manager’s residence.
Thomas says there is the option of either continuing the Edgewater Motel’s operations long-term as a business investment, or offering a new short to mid-term management contract to an experienced accommodation operator while a development programme is firmed up.
She says the blueprint for any midrise residential development on the Edgewater Motel site is clearly evident at the Ocean Point Apartment complex directly across Kinloch Reserve. The Ocean Point Apartments comprise a four-storey residential complex containing 28 luxury units in a configuration of two and threebedroom homes, along with two penthouses, and a pair of duplex dwellings. The block was completed in 2015 — with lower level residences selling since then for upward of $1,095,000, and $3m-plus for apartments on the upper floors.
Thomas says Orewa and the surrounding Hibiscus Coast region is experiencing significant population growth, and the Hibiscus Coast Highway property provides an outstanding opportunity to capitalise on this.