Some days you just have better work stories than others.
The high point – literally – for this reporter was looking over Auckland from the 41st floor of what will by next year be the city’s tallest residential tower.
That level marks the start of the Seascape’s penthouse floors, which will stretch another 11 storeys high, when the 187m-tall tower reaches its end point in October.
My lifetime fear of heights wasn’t helped by the casual way my guides from Shundi Customs – marketing manager Tashunka Bolton and service manager Ian Dou – stood right at the edge of the scaffolding to film the stunning views across the city for their publicity updates.
Start your property search
Also with me – and totally at ease – was New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty managing director Gavin Lloyd, who is marketing the apartments with colleague Scarlett Wood. The experienced mountaineer has scaled Horokoau Mount Tasman, New Zealand's second highest mountain, which clocks in at 3497m, so this was a doddle for him.
But the views, even back from where I was standing, were spectacular, and well worth the pounding heart and shaky legs.
Read more:
- Waterfront mansion with a Charles Dickens connection and a $13.4m CV
- 'I redesigned the whole thing': How couple turn a failed venture into luxury apartment block
- Auction fight for best view in Auckland sees 1970s Remuera home sell for $7.1m
Construction on the $300 million downtown apartment tower has reached the 43rd floor, with structural work and concrete pouring underway for level 45 (there is no level 44, as four is considered unlucky because it sounds like the word death in Mandarin and Cantonese).
Mercifully, for safety reasons, OneRoof’s tour stopped at level 41.
The cheerful operator of the bulky construction elevators ferrying workers to their floors, reckons it was the tallest build his company worked on.
“This is better than Rainbow’s End, eh?” he said, noting my very pale face turned away from the outside view as we sped to our stop.
The intrepid reporter, left, not looking a bit scared, with Shundi Customs’ Tashunka Bolton, centre and NZ Sotheby’s International Realty’s Gavin Lloyd. Photo / Supplied
The architects' render of a living room on almost the same spot. Photo / Supplied
I couldn't bear to look up at the cranes towering another four or more floors above the building, nor the scary-looking ladders the operators use to reach their cabins.
Project director Simon Ma has headed the construction since the 221-apartment tower was first announced to Auckland back in 2016. China Construction New Zealand, part of the world’s biggest building company, China State Construction Engineering Corporation, is the building partner. Shundi Customs will turn the adjoining 12-level office building into a hotel under their San He Yuan brand and retaining the heritage Victorian hotel on the Gore Street corner.
Ma politely deflected commenting on the time construction of the single tower has taken in Auckland compared to China, where Shundi builds entire new cities spread over 50 hectares, at speed.
So why Auckland, and why a residential tower?
“Our president, Mr Shao, has always had a strong base here, he lived here and his kids went to school,” said Bolton, but he could not be drawn on which penthouse Shao might pick for himself.
“This is the tallest skyscraper we’ve ever built, it’s the most complicated building at this height,” Ma said.
From the 41st floor, residents will look down on The Pacifica, next door and 9m shorter, and beyond Sky Tower to the Waitakere Ranges. Photo / Catherine Smith
Auckland’s bravest workers head up the catwalk staircase to their cabin on the top of the crane, now reaching past 45 floors. Photo / Catherine Smith
“Very seldom do you have fully glazed residential walls, it’s challenging so near the water and the shape is quite unique,” he said, referring to the architect Peddle Thorp-designed wedge that tapers the building from the 37th floor to enclose a triple-height sky garden, and the striking latticed steel mega-brace wrapping the exterior.
“We’ve designed to Homestar [sustainability] 6 rating, there’s triple glazing, ventilation and fresh air and it’s designed for passive solar gain as all the apartments face north.”
As well as the underpinning foundations – early reports describe five basement levels dug more than 21m down, deeper even than the City Rail Link tunnels nearby – there are 36 hydraulic dampening systems designed to limit building sway to a mere 20cm in a one-in-a-100-year earthquake, he said.
The glass façade is going on – the tower uses 30,000sqm of glass and some 10,000 tons of steel – but the luxury interior fitouts won’t begin until early 2024. High ceilings – 2.7m in the standard apartments, 2.9m in the penthouses and a whopping 9m in the entry lobby – mean the apartments feel roomy.
Views west, beyond the scaffolding, take in the Harbour Bridge, Westhaven marina and the upper Waitemata Harbour. Photo / Catherine Smith
The architects’ render of the pool on the seventh floor podium. Photo / Supplied
When finished, Seascape will be nine metres higher than the current record-holder The Pacifica, taller than Commercial Bay’s PWC tower (180m and 41 floors) and beaten only by Sky Tower (the observatory is at 220m, the top of the spire 328m).
That's still modest compared to behemoths across the Tasman where the tallest tower of One Sydney Harbour, on waterfront Barangaroo, hits 247m over 72 floors, or New York's Central Park Tower that hits just over 472m over 98 floors.
But level 41, the start of the penthouse floors, was plenty tall enough for me.
From there you look beyond the Hunua Ranges, to Coromandel Peninsula, gaze down at the toy-town Harbour Bridge, and, between neighbouring towers to the Waitakere Ranges. All the apartments face north for sun and views, but the views down on the city streets, Albert Park and the universities and Auckland’s maunga from the southern lift lobbies have their charms too.
Luxury buyers are already convinced. With an occupancy date slated for the third quarter of 2024, Lloyd said five of the 15-penthouse floor apartments have already sold, mainly to American and European buyers referred through the company’s global network.
Shundi is currently fitting out show apartments as marketing now turns to local buyers, although Bolton said upper-end buyers will often bring in their own designers to customise their apartment interiors.
The top sale so far is $18.3m for the 335sqm penthouse on level 47 (that includes 112sqm of enclosed wintergarden balconies) that was inked before Covid, Bolton said.
A buyer has snaffled a 206sqm pad on the northeast corner of level 41 for $11.4m, while others have fetched between $8.3m and $10.45m.
Yet to sell is the $23m two-storey 360sqm master penthouse spanning levels 51 and 52. It has balconies with 360-degree views and will look down on the entire neighbourhood.
That price will be a record, now that The Pacifica’s super penthouse, formerly asking $42m, has been carved into three smaller apartments topping out at $15m for 355sqm. It will also beat the asking price of $22.5m for Parnell's One Saint Stephens 539sqm penthouse.
The lobby entrance to six floors of restaurants, retail and offices is some 9m high. Photo / Supplied
Seascape opens off the city streets with a towering 9m lobby. As well as high-end retail and restaurants, the first six floors of the podium will have two floors of carparks for the penthouse residents (who also get their own lift), two floors of offices and a garden balcony.
Our tour stopped first at the seventh floor that gets close-up views of Britomart and the waterfront from the residents-only health club. It will include a spa and fitness area, and a pool which stretches from indoor to out, so swimmers can enjoy the easterly views.
Our next stop at the Sky Garden on level 37 was starting to get scary – but residents will be shielded by the dramatic sloping glass roof and a winter garden.
Lloyd said that experienced investors realise that it is unlikely any other developers will be able to build luxury towers this close to the waterfront, as the heritage buildings around Britomart are protected.
“Astute buyers know the best time to buy is when others are looking in the other direction.”
Shundi Customs is also building a new suburb that will house up to 5000 people on the nearly 10 hectares of Auckland University's former Tamaki campus in St Johns and has lodged resource consents for another San He Yuan luxury hotel in Queenstown.
- Seascape’s penthouse apartments are priced from $11.2m
