Progress on $14m Sumner apartment project

Saturday, 14 October 2023

An artist's impression of the $14 million redevelopment planned for the site of an old hotel on the corner of Marriner and Burgess streets in Sumner.

Developers behind what will be one of Sumner’s biggest property developments for years are about to lodge consent bids for their $14 million project.

Christchurch company Brooksfield is planning a colonial-style complex with 12 apartments and townhouses plus three shops on the corner of Marriner and Burgess streets, in central Sumner. The site is one block from Sumner beach.

More than half the homes have been pre-sold.

The old pink building on the corner site has now been demolished. (File photo)

Brooksfield has just completed demolition of the distinctive pink building on the site. The building was originally constructed as George Vincent’s Sumner Hotel in the late 19th century, and was more recently used as flats and shops.

The company bought the building for $1.7m late last year. It then purchased the vacant section alongside, where a single-level row of shops was demolished after the earthquakes, to enlarge its development site.

The new complex will comprise three buildings. The homes have been designed by British architectural and interior designer Ben Pentreath, who has worked for members of the royal family.

The homes are mostly priced between $950,000 and $1.3m, and have up to three bedrooms. Seven of the 12 are pre-sold.

Vincent Holloway, co-director of Brooksfield, said all the buyers intended to live in the homes themselves, and most are Christchurch people.

The company will keep the three shops as investments. One has been leased to a real estate business, and the other two are likely to be occupied by retailers rather than hospitality operators, he said.

Seven of the 12 homes in the development have been sold.

Holloway said they are now preparing to lodge resource and building consent applications with the city council. A scale model of the development will be put on the land so people can see how it will look.

Construction will be done all at once, rather than staging the project, he said.

“Everything is tracking pretty well. We would like to start building in February or March, and construction will take under a year.

“I think it will make a big difference to central Sumner. It will make it more like a colonial seaside town.”

Brooksfield has multiple housing developments under way in Christchurch, mostly in the inner suburbs, and specialises in heritage-style designs.