Two apartment towers approved for Cathedral Square
Central Christchurch’s $60 million Cathedral Tower Apartments development has been given the go-ahead.
The Christchurch City Council has given local development company REV3 resource consent to build the double-tower block.
The 50 apartments are planned for the former Heritage Hotel tower site at 26 Cathedral Square.
It will be the first building project in Cathedral Square since the earthquakes.
REV3 hopes to start building in April and finish the first apartments in the second half of 2018. Director Ivan Presquito said the timing of the first-stage completion would be ‘‘perfect’’.
‘‘Once it’s built, everything around us will be finished, or being built, too. And we believe our project has sparked some other things nearby,’’ he said.
Presquito and fellow directors Ivan Fernando and Vincent Ho paid about $3m for the land. They had originally hoped to start building this year.
Since announcing the project in April, the trio have had the building redesigned by Christchurch architect Jasper van der Lingen of Sheppard and Rout, who designed the award-winning Stranges building. A storey has been added, bringing the respective heights of the west and east towers to 15 and 12 storeys.
Most apartments will be priced in the $330,000 to $750,000 range.
Two duplex apartments, one atop each tower, will be priced about $4m each. They will cover 500 square metres each.
The eastern tower with its smaller apartments will go up first, followed by the taller western tower. Designs and sizes could be tweaked to meet market demand, the developers said.
The towers will be connected above street level, above a timberlined archway spanning Westpac Lane between the Square and Hereford St.
There will be a streetfront cafe, a restaurant part-way up, car lifts, solar electricity panels, recycled heat systems for water and space heating, electric car-charging, and base-isolated foundations.
Fernando said the project was fully financed, with funds coming from local investors.
‘‘We cannot skimp on the professionals.
‘‘At the end of the day, we pay extra money at the start but it’s more efficient and saves at the end,’’ Fernando said.