Hey, theres an article about it in the herald today. It's going to be 30, not 29, and called The Sentinel, not the Centennial.
Apartment tower plan in Takapuna
22.11.2003
By ANNE GIBSON
Rick Martin's Cornerstone Group wants to build a 30-level apartment tower on a Takapuna block and hopes to sell half the units by January.
Some locals are unhappy about the plan. The head of a local business association fears Takapuna could become a dormitory suburb, robbed of its prime commercial land.
Martin, unveiling his plans yesterday, said he would apply next month to the North Shore City Council for resource consent to build the 120-unit block to be called The Sentinel.
Martin is finishing The Nautilus block, a 12-storey 152-unit apartment building dominating Orewa's skyline. Residents will move in in January.
Martin, who has sold 560 North Shore units for a total of $207 million in the past 18 months, said he had a database with 11,000 people who had contacted him about apartments.
"Our target is to have this sold by the end of April," he said of The Sentinel, which will be on show at a display suite at 495 Lake Rd. The tower is to be built on the Takapuna Village site between Huron St and Northcroft St.
Takapuna Beach Business Association general manager Lindsay Waugh said her group was opposed to any developments which resulted in commercial land being used for apartments.
"Residential is taking us over and we're at risk of becoming a dormitory city," she said. "If an apartment block with 100 residents was an office block, it could have 1000 workers in it and that makes an enormous difference to the viability and future of Takapuna."
Waugh praised the 23-level Spencer on Byron, which opened in late 2001, saying its conferences and functions were an enormous boost to the suburb.
A Takapuna Village retailer said he had a five-year lease which had expired and he expected to move because the village was so rundown.
"It's hardly good use of the land. Most of the second level is vacant and there are broken windows here," he said.
But John Algie of the business association and Bayleys Real Estate approved of the plans, saying his agency was involved in the deal for Martin to buy the site about a month ago from a company owned by the Ng family.
"You're bringing in about 300 people into Takapuna who will shop, go to restaurants and to movies, which is good for business."