Fletcher Living’s $500m The Hill estate rising on Ellerslie ex-racing land

All up, just under 400 new residences are planned on what Fletcher refers to as Remuera, with the site on Ladies Mile near Abbots Way in the Peach Pde/Derby Downs Pl vicinity.

Fletcher will ask around $3m each for those first four homes.

Evans said the company would work on the wider site for a further five years, having started by contouring the steeply sloping ex-steeplechase area.

A stormwater catchment pond was moved. Fletcher built a new pond which Evans estimated was 100m long, 30m wide and 20m deep.

All stormwater from The Hill estate was fed downhill to that pond with overflow mechanisms. The horse racing business uses that to irrigate its StrathAyr track.

That new pond is beside the nine-hole Ellerslie Driving Range.

Civil engineering construction business March Cato won the contract for the earthworks at The Hill, creating level platforms for the new homes. March Cato worked for Fletcher Living at Stonefields, he said.

Around 20 subcontractors have been employed by Fletcher Living to build The Hill. Evans stressed his company kept oversight.

One-bedroom, level-one, 63sq m, one-car park Belvedere units start from $999,000.

A level-six, 125sq m unit with a 17sq m balcony and two carparks is advertised at $3.1m.

Five level-six units are marked pre-sold and Evans said April 2027 was the target date for settlement of sales.

Deposits were paid on 21 of the 50 units “so we’ve got past the hurdle”.

Apartments, duplexes, terraced and detached houses are all planned. Street lighting, kerbing and some footpaths have been formed on the upper loop road.

Two neighbouring six-level apartment blocks, each of 70 units, will rise beside Belvedere. Warren & Mahoney designed those three blocks.

Remuera down-sizers with multimillion-dollar homes and those keen on horse racing were some of the targets for sales.

Fletcher had to resolve how not to blind horses with sun from the windows of the new homes so close to where they are racing. Evans cited this issue at Brisbane’s Eagle Farm and Melbourne’s Flemington.

Another issue was contaminated land due to the use for the storage of pipes containing asbestos, Evans said.

Paul Wilcox, Auckland Thoroughbred Racing chief executive, has acknowledged that the land sale been a controversial topic but said the industry would see the benefits, particularly with increased stakes.

Fletcher won fast-track consent for the project.

An architectural design statement submitted by Warren & Mahoney referred to the layout of housing precincts being developed around vistas to the racecourse.

The Environmental Protection Authority said an expert consenting panel agreed to fast-track planning consent on May 16, 2023.

Concerns were raised from those invited to submit including neighbours.

Traffic congestion, safety, construction traffic, parking, emergency vehicle access and construction-related effects including vibration, dust, air quality and contaminated land were raised.

Effects on property values, lack of capacity at local schools, consultation with neighbouring landowners and fast-tracking were other issues raised.

The land was an undulating site at the racecourse’s eastern end, largely grassed, containing a section of the track once used as the steeplechase, the authority’s documents noted.

A dwelling, which was the manager’s cottage, was on that site.

Evans said $1m was spent renovating and extending that white weatherboard home at 99 Ladies Mile. It is now a display suite and showroom.

“We’re galloping ahead,” he said of the wider project.

The Hill by Fletcher Living

Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.