to gateway

ground springs flowing from Lake Pupuke to Takapuna Beach.

It will be years before the entire central site is finished. (See map.)

Wellington-based developer Willis Bond will start by erecting high-rise apartments on the largest of the five blocks, at the Anzac St end of the site, bordering Potters Park. The Takapuna Central Apartments will be around 12 storeys high. Registrations of interest are open, but details on pricing and layout and marketing are not expected until early 2024.

Until construction work begins, parking will continue on this block.

A purchase price for the site is yet to be made public, with Eke Panuku on several occasions telling the Observer that the deal has yet to be finalised, so is commercially sensitive. The agreement was announced in early 2022, when Panuku said it would be up to a year before a price was made public.

Four other blocks around the square’s fringe will be progressively developed by Willis Bond, which has previously developed apartments in Wynyard Quarter. The aim is to create a cohesive look in buildings that will include apartments and office and retail space.

The TRA has taken its shading concerns to the local board to ask for its advocacy to ensure development in the square and a rapidly intensifying town centre will be resident-friendly and high quality. It has also told the board it is against a targeted rate to provide a combined library and community hub in the square. The board is considering this idea.

Cumberpatch said staggered building heights should ensure shading was not an issue – the reason building heights between the Takapuna Central Apartments and the square had been capped at 20m.

This equates to 3 to 5 storeys. It is the building that would house the community hub should it proceed.

Five-stage plan: The Willis Bond staged development (shown in blue) has five blocks of varying heights. Block A, the Takapuna Central Apartments, will be built first, to around 12 storeys high, with frontage to Anzac St and a service lane to the east leading into the square. Block B, in front of it, will be between three and five storeys, to a maximum of 20m high. Should a community services hub and library proceed, it would be on this block. Until construction starts, 125 car parks will remain across the two sites. In the meantime, the smallest development site, Block E, has been temporarily grassed, and the sealed area set aside for Block D will be used for activities such as a temporary pump track.