The construction team moves on to Housing NZ’s Asquith Ave site early in the New Year – and the homes should be ready for the new owners and tenants in February 2019.
The state agency has given more details on the development, naming Takapuna-based Build Partners as the lead contractors and pinpointing February 18, 2019, as the target completion date.
Before the development begins to take shape above the ground, the contractors will get moving on the “civil establishment” of the site, which is set to start on February 7 and will take an estimated 155 days.
Civil establishment is developer-speak for all the associated works needed to prepare the block (pictured here), With a site as large as Asquith’s 8094sq m, the construction team will probably be able to work on one area as another is being prepared. That pre-building work would normally cover major areas like:
Excavation and the inevitable rock-breaking on land that is laden with volcanic rock; power and water to the block, and waste water/stormwater from all sites and common areas; detention tanks (to detain water from site); preparing for driveways and stormwater; landscaping; capping existing services; removing trees; installation of fibre.
A Housing NZ executive says the plans haven’t changed over the long months since the corporation unveiled its masterplan in March 2016 for 20 privately-owned four-bedroom homes and 20 one-bedroom units for state tenants.
The four-bedroom homes, built to high specifications, will run along three sides of the perimeter – leaving a central green space ringed by a footpath leading through the “village”.
The units for state tenants – probably for elderly folk or those living on their own – will be in a block along the Maybeck Rd side of the land.
The private homes will be placed with a real estate agency to sell on the open market and the state tenants and buyers will move into the new homes around the same time.
Mt Albert Inc has asked further questions about the new site masterplan (pictured) because it appears to have changed in some minor respects. For example, there seems to be no private entry to the state units from Asquith Ave, as originally allowed; entry now appears to be from the middle of the development.
Housing NZ also declined to answer some specific questions posed by this website on the delay and is now treating them as a request under the Official Information Act.
Those questions are (and the answers will be revealed when and if the corporation answers them):
– When the master plan was revealed in 2016, HNZ hoped work would start around November of that year. While the resource consent process seemed to take more time than expected, what was the main reason for the delay? The tender round ended in February, of course – so were market conditions (tight margins from well-committed developers, leading perhaps to a lack of commercial interest) the issue? If not, what were the main problems – the main reason for the delay?
– Did HNZ have to increase its budget to fit the original plan – or has that original plan “suffered” in some way?
– Will Asquith still be a highly-specced development, or has HNZ been forced for budgetary reasons to cut some costs (and thus reduce the quality of the homes)? If that is so, where have the cost cuts been made?
Bruce Morris
What an Official Information Act request finally revealed
Last week’s story announcing the New Year start
