Apartments get royal touch
Apartments and townhouses designed by an architectural designer to the royal family will replace an old building in Sumner.
The distinctive pink building at the corner of Marriner and Burgess streets has been sold for about $1.7 million to development company Brooksfield.
The company has hired Ben Pentreath to design three apartments and three townhouses at the property.
The $7m development will include a shop and car parking underneath.
Pentreath, who has already designed Georgian-style homes for Brooksfield, has worked for King Charles’ Prince’s Foundation and designed buildings for the Duchy of Cornwall. He has also worked on the interior designs for two of the homes of Prince William and Duchess Kate – the couple’s country mansion Anmer House and their Kensington Palace apartments.
Brooksfield director Vinny Holloway said while in Britain he had met up with Pentreath, who has a New Zealand connection through his husband, Charlie McCormick.
Holloway said Pentreath and his firm were now finalising the design for their Sumner site.
The nature of the location meant the homes would be more upmarket than those they had already built, Holloway said.
The three-bedroom townhouses will sell for $1m-plus each, and the two-bedroom apartments will be priced at just under $1m, he said.
‘‘They will be higher spec than what we normally do in areas like Spreydon and Addington.’’
Holloway said they would start selling the homes early next year. Construction would start about May, and the development would be finished in early 2024.
The building now houses shops at street level and residential accommodation upstairs.
It is a block back from the beach, and is opposite the Hollywood movie house, which is about to be renovated and reopened as part of the Silky Otter chain.