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The Real Living Group, which owns the Oaks on Neville retirement complex in Warkworth, plans to lodge a building consent for the next stage of its development before November.
The consent will be for two five storey apartment blocks, which will also accommodate care suites, retail shops, additional parking and a small wine bar and cinema. The buildings will be on the former Four Square site, now partially occupied by Pets North.
The company already has resource consent for the development, although spokesperson Chris Murphy says they will be applying for a variation.
The original plan allowed for 48 apartments and 27 care rooms. This configuration has altered slightly, although the exterior of the buildings on Neville Street remains unchanged.
“What we found from selling the Oaks on Neville was that the larger apartments sold first, so we have reduced the number of apartments to 44 but increased the size of some of them, up to three bedrooms and 180sqm.
“It is an industry-wide trend fuelled by various factors. Some people like a third room to use as a study, some couples like to sleep in separate bedrooms and some people just have trouble down-sizing.”
Murphy says there has also been a shift in care options, with people increasingly preferring to stay in their apartment with lounge/dining and kitchen facilities, rather move to single bedroom arrangements.
The new development will cater for both rest home care and hospital level care, but certain structural changes will be incorporated into some apartments so ceiling hoists and bathroom fittings can be fitted when a resident needs mobility support. The 27 care apartments will consist of 19 care suites and six care rooms, all with appropriate levels of nursing support.
Murphy says depending on Council timeframes, the company hopes to be in a position to decide whether or not to push the ‘Go’ button around the middle of next year.
“We’re keen to start as soon as it is prudent to do so.”
The starting date will be influenced by the financial and building climate next year.
“We’ve just started work on a complex in Remuera that is not dissimilar to Warkworth. When we went to sign the contract in January, the build price had moved up 10 per cent in six months. This meant revisiting the economics of the project, as well as renegotiating our finance with the bank.
“In an environment where there is such a lot of uncertainty over labour shortages and supply lines, builders are understandably very unwilling to fix costs.
“This makes it really hard to give an exact start date but we are keen to get going as soon as we can.”
Murphy estimates the build will take two years. As part of the current review of the design, solar panels are being priced and may be retrofitted to the existing two buildings in Queen Street. Underground water storage is also on the radar to address the silica issue in Warkworth’s water.
Meanwhile, the design for the site on the corner of Mill Lane and Whitaker Road, which is also owned by the Real Living Group, is underway. Murphy is obviously excited by the possibilities that the north facing site, formerly occupied by Wilmot Motors and fringed by the Mahurangi River, presents.
He envisions a tiered building with 60 to 70 apartments, with communal facilities and retail.
