A New York industrial-style loft in Auckland’s Grey Lynn sold at the end of last month after good interest in a tender process that closed at the end of the month.
The 496sqm warehouse conversion on Putiki Street, marketed by Barfoot & Thompson agents Carl Madsen and Roseanne Madsen, had been used as a live-work space.
The level of interest and speed of sale indicates a notable turn in the market around Ponsonby and Grey Lynn after a difficult start to the year, Carl Madsen said.
Designed by French industrial designer Stephane Rondel as his workshop, the loft also served as the childhood home of Rondel's daughter, global baking star Jordan Rondel of The Caker.
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The warehouse garnered awards for Rondel and architect Ward Architects back when it was first built in 1996, and it appeared in numerous magazine stories.
Madsen said confidentiality clauses prevented revealing details of the buyer or price of the property, which had a CV of $2.45 million. OneRoof records show it last sold in 2000 for $1m to a couple who ran their accountancy business from the ground floor and lived above.
The three-storey space still featured Rondel’s glass climbing wall through the centre of the space, the dramatic curving steel staircase, glass-floored hallway and industrial-style kitchen. The living floor bathroom featured a much-photographed glass bath and curved stainless steel walls, while the top floor master bedroom had striking views across the Newton valley to Maungawhau Mount Eden.
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Madsen said most buyers were from the surrounding areas, drawn to the huge space with off-street parking – a rarity in the inner city.
“That’s a big opportunity to make the money if you spend the money. It attracted people looking for something out of the ordinary.”
“There was a lot of deferred maintenance, so people were looking at it as a real cool residential renovation, or a live-work. No one was looking for just a business,” Madsen said.
The converted warehouse on Putiki Street was the childhood home of The Caker star Jordan Rondel. Photo / Supplied
The industrial-chic conversion of the warehouse in 1996 won awards for its designer-owner and the architect. Photo / Supplied
The sale follows the rapid sale of another Grey Lynn warehouse at the beginning of May just two weeks after it was listed.
The luxuriously renovated four-bedroom home with two apartments on Westmoreland Street sold after a “very, very good pre-auction offer” for a price that can’t yet be disclosed. The property had a CV Of $5.45m and last changed hands six years ago, before renovation, for $4.25m.
Madsen had earlier told OneRoof the Putiki home has no parallel.
“You go into this and the next thing you're in this remarkable space with this big atrium and you look up and you've obviously got the climbing wall and you've got these metal staircases that go off in different angles and then you look up and there's this glass walkway that you can walk across," he said.
The Putiki Street Grey Lynn warehouse featured a heart-stopping glass floor on the upper level. Photo / Supplied
The glass bathroom in a circular stainless steel pod featured in many magazine stories. Photo / Supplied
“You walk across this glass walkway and you're looking down, and I must admit your first step is a leap of faith, and you walk across it but you can look down and through and just see these angles and stairways.”
- Additional reporting Catherine Masters
