Australians trotting in to develop Alexandra Park
Australian developers have consent to build 193 new apartments at Auckland’s Alexandra Park, demolishing one of two grandstands to make way for the scheme to add even more units to the land off Greenlane West Rd.
Lance Rosenberg, managing director of Sydney-headquartered financier Gleneagle Securities, said that the business had permission to develop Parkview on Cornwall on land at the Epsom end of the site.
One older grandstand will be demolished because it stood on land Gleneagle had bought, while the larger main grandstand would remain, he said.
Demolition of the Epsom Stand would start in the next few weeks with Ward Demolition winning the contract.
Rosenberg said that was necessary for the scheme to proceed “and it’s a fire risk. Part of the land we’ve purchased has that [Epsom] stand on it. We have consent from Auckland Council to build apartments beside the existing [Centennial] stand. We will have to demolish the [Epsom] stand to develop our land.”
Plans to potentially turn the 100-year-old 35ha Avondale Racecourse into thousands of new houses and apartments have spurred concerned residents in that area to plan a community meeting next week.
At Alexandra Park, council consent documents showed the Australians’ land is at 223-229 Greenlane West Rd.
Apartment blocks designed by Paul Brown and Associate Architects are called Queen of the Park and Cardigan Bay.
“There will be a whole road width plus footpaths — at least 15m to 20m — to the south away from the Auckland Trotting Club’s existing Centennial grandstand. This first stage will back on to Green Lane West,” Rosenberg said.
“On the old Epsom Grandstand site we are applying for resource consent for 50-plus apartments facing the racetrack. This will be at least a full road width plus garden area of around 12-14m to the east away from the current Alexandra Trotting Club Centennial stand. This will be our next stage of development.”
The old Epsom Stand was not safe or fit for purpose and it was a requirement of the council to demolish as part of the subdivision consent, he said.
“We will be making good and preserving the beautiful heritage gates and walls, which are protected by the council.”
Gleneagle Securities had raised $75m from New Zealand and Australian investors via syndication to partly fund the scheme, he said.
Three years ago, the business bought 1.6ha of land from the Auckland Trotting Club for $52m.
Stage one would be 52 apartments in a block of four levels.
Apartments would sell from about $750,000 to $5m.
Marketing of Queen of the Park would begin in a few weeks.