A mysterious concrete house in the heart of Auckland’s Freemans Bay commercial precinct is being pitched to international buyers as an $11 million investment opportunity.
New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agent Scarlett Wood told OneRoof she is marketing the Lawrence Sumich-designed property at 35 Spring St, Freemans Bay, to foreign investors and has already attracted interest from buyers in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
“Foreign individuals can purchase commercial properties without going through the AIP [Active Investor Plus] process, so this opens the door,” Wood said.
“Buyers from these places tend to enjoy the city vibe, proximity to luxury retail, fine dining and CBD. It is really a mint spot – you’re right in the middle, not in the city but close to everything.”
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Business zoning rules meant architect Lawrence Sumich could push the walls of the Spring St house to each boundary, leaving a light-filled courtyard.
The previous owners told the Herald they had briefed Sumich in the early 2000s to turn a former 225sq m parking area on the side street near New World Victoria Park into a private three-bedroom house.
The business mixed-use zoning meant the architect could push concrete walls to each boundary, wrapping living around a striking double-height courtyard and adding skylights, internal balconies and an over-scaled louvred window facing the street to bring in light.
From the pavement, a pair of steel doors, one for pedestrians, the other opening to a four-car garage, give nothing away.
When a friend tipped off current owner Rosa Tan that the house was on the market in 2016, she was intrigued by the striking design but told OneRoof she didn’t know what she would do with the property.
“I just felt I loved the design; I want to do something with it,” she said. Eventually Tan turned to creating an inner-city events space, which she dubbed Cocoon House in homage to her family’s silk-worm farming and silk manufacturing business in China.
Tan spent a lot of time and money upgrading the property’s lighting and electronics, tricky with a concrete build. She brought in hand-made light fixtures to complement her extensive art collection. In the courtyard, she added a Banksy-style piece by Kiwi artist Otis Frizzell, and a fountain water feature.
“Design is my hobby; I loved fashion when I was very young. At the beginning, the previous owner, Wendy, helped me with the renovation – she had so many good ideas.”
At the top of every visitor’s list is the ground-floor speakeasy-style bar that Tan created from a former wine cellar and gym. The walls have a rotating menu of LED light shows, the ceiling is a shimmering Milky Way, and the bar glitters with mirrors.
Cocoon House guests could rent the space for $1,500 a night, which included a mixologist to kick off the party.
Glass walls on the ground floor slide back to create a single space for corporate events.
On the main level, glass walls slide back to open up the double-height kitchen and entertaining area, as well as the gallery hall and winter living room, to the courtyard.
The space hosted high-end product launches for clients such as Rolls-Royce and fashion brands, intimate weddings and corporate meetings – which is when the bar came into its own.
Chef Des Harris of the legendary Clooney Restaurant often created the menus.
The three upstairs bedrooms were turned into meeting rooms – one is a Chinese-style tea room, one has been fitted out as a library (called the Fornasetti room after Tan’s collection of pieces by the Milanese designer), and the third as a boardroom.
The closets and luxury en suite bathrooms on this floor could be turned back to domestic use.
Tan closed the business after covid and is selling because she splits most of her time between Queenstown and China.
The speakeasy-style bar has light shows and a dramatic atmosphere. Photo / Supplied
Agent Wood, who frequently put events together for clients at Cocoon House through her business The Luxury Network, said guests loved the space’s feminine-meets-masculine vibe, as well as the extraordinary sense of privacy.
She said the $11m price tag reflects the exclusivity.
“It’s very Zen in the city hustle and bustle. Once you are inside, you feel like you are in a whole sanctuary,” she said, adding that most of the buyers she has shown are thinking of turning Spring St back into a private residence.
“It’s a perfect lock-up-and-leave, if you had a place down in Queenstown as Rosa has. It has really appealed to our global Sotheby’s network.”
Ultra-modern dream house
Another striking concrete home is up for grabs in neighbouring Herne Bay. New Zealand concretologist and Grand Designs star Ross Bannan built it.
The two-storey, two-bedroom home at 1 Albany Rd, in Herne Bay, has attracted the attention of serious architecture fans over the years.
Previous owners include rich-lister property developer Ben Cook and fashion importer Roger Wall, brother of luxury real estate agent Graham Wall, whose sons Ollie and Andrew have the listing.
The current owners, who asked not to be named, bought the home in 2023 for $6.575m, when Cook was selling his New Zealand property portfolio.
Ollie and Andrew haven’t put a price on the property but are telling buyers the market has barely moved since it last sold.
The brothers see a lot of great houses in the course of their work, but told OneRoof that 1 Albany Rd was their dream house.
“You’re in this ultra-modern house full of light and minimalist to the extreme,” Ollie said.
“Then you’ve got this beautiful kind of European-feeling courtyard in between that and the original horse stables. Fearon Hay kept all the charm and everything beautiful about it but put in this glass and steel and marble bathroom.”
I visited the house last month, and I know exactly what the Walls are talking about. Check out OneRoof’s video tour of the property on Instagram, filmed by OneRoof’s social media guru Juliette Jenkinson (it’s racking up the views and the likes).
Chance Voight property up for grabs
Two high-profile figures who have been in the news headlines for separate matters appeared on OneRoof’s real estate radar last week. The first is multi-millionaire property developer Chris Meehan.
OneRoof discovered that a Herne Bay villa linked to the Winton founder has been sold for $14m.
The luxurious property owned by Speargrass Holdings, the company controlled by Meehan, his wife Michaela and lawyer Jeremy Johnson, changed hands last month to a company called Greymouth Holdings in an off-market deal.
OneRoof understands that Wall Real Estate agency handled the sale. OneRoof approached Meehan and Wall Real Estate for comment. Wall Real Estate declined to comment, and Meehan had not replied at the time of writing.
According to QV records, which noted a market sale for $14m at the end of May this year, the 404sq m villa has five bedrooms, two bathrooms and sits on a 981sq m section.
At $14m, the sale price is among the highest for a non-waterfront home in Herne Bay. Last year, a villa on the same street got $15m, in a deal also brokered by Wall Real Estate.
The second figure is Bernard Whimp, the businessman who once called himself New Zealand’s Donald Trump. His investment company Chance Voight Investment Corporation Ltd and 28 related entities have been placed into liquidation after the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) launched a formal investigation into the group last year.
Teneo Financial Advisory’s John Fisk, Lara Bennett and Malcolm Hollis have been appointed liquidators for the Chance Voight Group and have been tasked with realising the companies’ assets. The group’s assets include 11 residential and commercial properties and vacant sections in or around Canterbury, according to the PwC interim liquidation report.
A three-bedroom, one-bathroom house at 1/394 Papanui Rd, in Papanui, is the first of the group’s properties to be listed for sale.
Harcourts agent Tristram Harcourt, who is marketing the property, declined to comment on the sale, but in his listing said the David Allen architecturally designed home was being sold in a liquidator’s auction.
The property has an RV of $830,000 and last changed hands for $770,000 in March 2022.
