Generus Living Group to demolish, replace leaky Ngāti Whātua village Eastcliffe, $336m project planned
Privately-owned national retirement business Generus Living Group plans a 125-year leasehold deal with Ngāti Whātua so it can replace its existing but leaky Eastcliffe retirement village with a new $336 million project.
Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Trust deputy chair Ngarimu Blair and Generus director Graham Wilkinson announced the plans for the 25-year-old village at 217 Kupe St, Ōrākei.
The leasehold purchase is conditional on Ministry for the Environment fast-track approval for a replacement village, to be called The Point Mission Bay.
Eastcliffe at Takaparawhau Bastion Point was built in 2000 but suffered severe weathertightness issues.
In 2017, 33 residences were demolished because they leaked and were structurally unsound.
Those places were home to 34 people at the time.
Wilkinson said Generus would retain the main care building near Kupe St at the top of the site.
But that needs significant refurbishment and remediation, he said.
Wilkinson plans 60 new care apartments, including for those with dementia, and a 28-bed geriatric hospital.
Refurbishment of that main building is to begin next year.
“Having care available from the initial stages of village development will provide certainty to village residents for their long-term future,” Wilkinson said.
The Point Mission Bay will include five new interconnected buildings with 250 apartments.
Access will be off Aotea St.
Blair said the partnership with Generus “enables us to realise the full potential of our whenua [land] while ensuring that this development benefits our whānau and the wider community”.
It would bring financial and social benefits to Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, to receive a capital payment and a long-term income stream from a share in the deferred management fees generated by the village.
“Additionally, our whānau will benefit from education, employment and business opportunities. Generus Living will also fund a scholarship for Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei tauira [students] in the health sector,” Blair said.
Eastcliffe once had six separate blocks: Nīkau, Matai, Kauri, Kōwhai, Tōtara and Rimu.
The value of the development project was put at $336m and it is expected to provide jobs and economic benefits during the construction phases.
Eastcliffe is now home to about 75 residents, who will move to The Point Mission Bay under the ownership and operation of Generus Living, subject to fast-track resource consent approval.
In 2020, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei put “on hold” a partly built new Eastcliffe apartment block. It was stopped partway into construction due to the pandemic.
Generus has six villages:
- The Foundation, partly open but still being developed on leasehold land leased by Blind Low Vision New Zealand in Parnell;
- The Ranfurly Village in Three Kings on land leased from war veterans;
- Pacific Lakes, Mount Maunganui on Māori leasehold land;
- The Pacific Coast Villages, Mount Maunganui, an adjoining village also on Māori leasehold land;
- The Holly Lea Village, not on a leasehold site, in Christchurch;
- The Russley Village, not on a leasehold site, also in Christchurch.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.