A concert violinist who switched her evening dress for a hard hat nearly eight years ago is celebrating the completion of her multi-million-dollar development in Auckland’s city fringe.
But she’s not ready to take a bow just yet. She still has 20-odd apartments left to sell, including four $3 million-plus penthouses.
Vanessa Tam, whose nine-storey Proxima Residences on 47 Randolph Street, Eden Terrace, began to welcome new residents in July, told OneRoof that the Covid-delayed development had a lot of stress points.
“It’s just been a whirlwind the last few months. There’s so much work when settlement happens,” she said. “We’re about 50% sold.”
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She joked that her twin passions had a surprising amount in common. “There are actually quite a lot of transferable skills between performance and development. They’re both relatively stressful jobs, but just very different stress,” Tam said.
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“They both require you work by yourself a lot, so you need a lot of self-motivation and a lot of hard work.”
After following her masters degree in performance violin with a few years of travelling as a freelance musician, Tam took up what she’d expected to be a temporary day job in marketing at ASB bank to earn enough to buy her own house. Seven years later she stepped away to focus on the Proxima development, which had been bubbling in the background since 2016.
“My mother has owned the Randolph Street land for 30 years, so the land really does have meaning for us. It used to be an old taxi warehouse,” Tam recalled.
“It was always in the back of our mind [to develop] and it just seemed like the right time. The warehouse is getting a bit old as well, we needed to throw money into that. So, one thing led to the next.”
As well as building her development, Vanessa Tam performed with chamber groups and orchestras around Australasia, Canada, the United States and Europe. Photo / Supplied
The view from the penthouse apartment looks out to the city. Photo / Supplied
Tam said the project had a lot of stress points, as part way through the project planning, they were hit by Covid lockdowns, then the post-Covid construction price rises. The project finally broke ground in January 2022.
“It took some courage to do that. With a project like this that is so complicated inherently, you make so many decisions along the way and hope it’s the right one.
“We did spend our time [at the beginning] just exploring options. We didn’t get into it quickly. We ended up using Construkt Architects as they have a strong urban planning background and I think what they’ve designed really is very suitable for the area.”
Ray White agent Casey Chen has just begun marketing the first of the four penthouse apartments, which have a set sale closing October 8.
Off the plan sales, which launched in 2017, went on hold through Covid, but since February this year, Chen has sold 11 apartments.
“Building the penthouses at the end is a separate project all together in my mind. They all had their own detailing, they’re bespoke,” Tam said.
The Eden Terrace neighbourhood is close to the city and Ponsonby, but apartments are more affordable. Proxima Residences is the one with the black roof, lower right. Photo / Supplied
The 67-apartment block is half sold, with the four penthouses the last apartments to come to market. Photo / Supplied
Chen said the price of the penthouses will start at $3m, with over $4m expected for the two larger apartments (one is over 300sqm).
Tam said that while it was not easy times, her finance partners continued to stand by them. “It’s not an easy market for anybody at the moment, there’s always pressure. But I’m a very collaborative person, and my funder has been on the journey with us this whole time. I’m not saying there’s no pressure but they were working through all this with us and, we worked very hard to kind of keep sales going even in a difficult market,” she told OneRoof.
“I’m hoping it will get easier from here onwards.”
Tam and Chen expect that the neighbouring Newton/Eden Terrace area, dubbed Uptown by the local businesses, will really take off once construction of the major station for the CRL is completed on Mount Eden Road and new development begins above ground.
“People ignore Eden Terrace, but it can’t be ignored because unlike Grey Lynn and Ponsonby, which are really expensive, this is more affordable but it’s close to everything,” Chen said.
She said that one-bedroom apartments start at $700,000 and two bedrooms start at $1.15 up to $1.5m (the only three-bedroom is expecting $1.8m). Buyers are a mix of first-home professionals and out-of-towners wanting a bolthole in the city.
“Because we have owned the land for so long, I wanted to make sure the apartments are something I’d like to live in myself. One of our biggest selling points are our balconies,” Tam said.
“Balconies don’t make any money, they’re just costly. But it’s fantastic to have that outdoor living space. Sale prices don’t really take into account, it’s a luxury.
“Everyone who moves in is just stoked with what they’ve got.”
The final piece of the development, Tam said, is to let the ground floor streetside space. “We’re now on the market to see what we put there because it’s a lovely space,” she said.
- This story was updated to amend the starting price of the two-bedroom apartments.
