The former headquarters of Kiwi insurance firm Fidelity Life is to be turned into a $100 million luxury apartment building that will overlook Auckland Domain.
The seven-storey office block at 81 Carlton Gore Road, in Newmarket, is being stripped to its bare bones and will be replaced with 69 high-end apartments.
The regeneration of Fidelity House, which sold in May 2020 for just under $29 million, is being spearheaded by developers Lamont & Co, the company behind the F-A-B-R-I-C apartments in Onehunga, and architects Warren and Mahoney.
Backing the project is financier ICON Developments, an Australian-based subsidiary of the Japanese construction and real estate development giant Kajima Corporation.
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The apartments will range in size from 67sqm to 421sqm, with prices expected to start at $1m and stretch to $8m-plus for penthouse suites. Lamont & Co says those at the top will have unencumbered park and city views, as well as three-car garaging.
The apartments will be split between the retrofit of the Fidelity Life offices, which will be renamed the Park Residences, and a brand-new six-level building at the back, named the Garden Residences. The name of the overall development is The Domain Collection.
Warren and Mahoney is designing the new development, which is being spearheaded by Lamont & Co. Photo / Supplied
Connecting the two buildings will be a “secret garden” designed by Philip Smith of O2 Landscapes, as an ode to the volcanic gardens that form such an integral part of Auckland Domain.
Pete Evans, national director at Colliers, which is marketing the development, told OneRoof a retro-fit project like this was rare. “For this size of unit and location, this is probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It might be the first in 30 years to get a north-facing aspect overlooking Auckland Domain.”
He added: “As soon as we saw the design from Warren and Mahoney we just went ‘wow’."
All the apartments have balconies and all but two in the retrofitted section of the development face the domain. The outlook of the other two is onto the secret garden.
Evan put the $1m starting price into perspective, saying units in a nearby retirement village that is under construction currently range from $2m to $3m, without the views.
The former Fidelity Life headquarters in 2020. The building is to be stripped back to its bones. Photo / Supplied
“This is not a simple, standard apartment block,” says Evans. “An incredible amount of thought and attention has gone into every aspect of the project’s design.”
He predicts buyers will likely be empty-nesters who also own baches out of town. “But there's the hospital doctors, the city professionals - there will be a range.” The proximity of Westfield Newmarket, the University of Auckland’s Newmarket and Grafton campuses, and Auckland City Hospital will likely drive demand as well.
Warren and Mahoney associate principal Peta Nichols says the challenge was to create a precinct with the existing office building at the front overlooking Carlton Gore Road directly onto Auckland Domain, and a brand-new building at the back of the secret garden.
“Because it’s a retrofit, we’ve got really great bones,” says Nichols. “It is 3.5m floor to floor in the front building, [which means] 2.9m to 3m ceiling heights. Because [the building] faces north over Auckland Domain, the client was really keen to set a precedent of what apartment living could be like in Auckland.
An artist’s impression of the Park Residences, which faces Auckland Domain. Photo / Supplied
Designs for the back building, which is to be called the Garden Residences. Photo / Supplied
“Then the back building gives us an opportunity to deliver something slightly more mid-market for people in a really great location. We’ve got the 20-metre separation between those two buildings so [the back building] still gets a really good amount of northern light, but they also get the views towards the south of the site and Mt Eden.”
Lamont & Co directors, brothers Andrew and Tim Lamont, says the project offered them the chance to develop something new. “We always look for sites that have a unique point of difference with the ambition to create unrepeatable projects. This site is so exceptional,” Andrew says.
Tim adds: “We wanted to deliver something new to Auckland’s residential landscape with this project. The Domain is an incredible natural asset that provides the ultimate amenity for uncompromised apartment living.
“Our aim is always to bring something charismatic to the market – to create homes that people are proud of and that are in harmony with Kiwi-lifestyle aspirations."
The Domain Collection is ICON Development’s first project in New Zealand. CEO Matthew Bourke says: “Our role as a financier for The Domain Collection plays to our core strengths as a business. Our three-tiered business model centres on development, construction, and finance solutions for third party developers. The combination of these areas of expertise places us in a unique position to be able to finance new developments at home in Australia and our first project in New Zealand."
Originally constructed in the 1980s, the Fidelity House building was expanded in 2005 with a four-level annex to the rear. A 2017 report by Tonkin Taylor indicated the building is of sound construction with an initial seismic assessment of 100 per cent National Building Standard.
It is not the only high-end development on the blocks. The New Zealand Herald reported last month that the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell had leased a prominent corner site on the St Stephens Ave corner for the development of a high-end apartment building.
