– The 6705sqm Ellerslie Bowls Club site is for sale as a mortgagee sale after an apartment project was halted.
– The club’s plans for a 56-apartment tower were affected by market downturn and rising costs.
– Club secretary Bryce Mackie hopes to secure a sale before the mortgagee tender is finalised.
The grounds of one of Auckland’s oldest sporting clubs has been listed for sale as a mortgagee sale after the pin was pulled on a multimillion-dollar apartment block.
The 6705sqm site at 20-20A Kalmia Street, which houses the 115-year-old Ellerslie Bowls Club, is spread across two titles and is being sold as a development opportunity.
The club had ambitious plans to build an apartment block on a 2044sqm section facing Kalmia Street in a bid to secure its financial future.
The 6705sqm site, which includes the bowling club grounds, is listed as a mortgagee sale. Photo / Supplied
Listings for units in Menzies Court were launched in 2022, with buyers offered off-the-plan apartments priced between $689,000 and $1m-plus.
Club secretary Bryce Mackie told OneRoof that the market downturn and spiralling costs impacted the development. Listings for the apartment complex were pulled in January, and the club had been trying to sell off one of the sites to avoid a mortgagee sale.
However, the lender has stepped in and listed the property for mortgagee tender with Barfoot & Thompson agents Philip Davis and Eddie Zhao.
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The club is 70m from Ellerslie train station and has consents on the street-facing lot for a 56-apartment tower and commercial developments. The 1011sqm lot to the rear houses the bowling club, auxiliary buildings, and parking spaces.
The two titles have a combined RV of just over $10m.
Mackie told OneRoof that when the apartment plans were shelved, the club then tried to sell the rear lot, or part of it, to neighbouring Ellerslie School.
“At the beginning, we were only going to sell lot one, but then we tried to sell lot one to the school next door so they could have an auditorium, but the Government didn’t want to spend money. That would have given us enough equity to pay back the lender and upgrade the facilities.”
The two titles have a combined RV of just over $10m. Photo / Supplied
Mackie said one of the rationales for the apartment development was that it would reinvigorate the club. “The membership has dwindled. We got building consent, we got up to selling the apartments off-the-plan, in 2023, but at that time the market wasn’t looking for apartments.”
Had the development gone through, the club would have spent the proceeds on upgrading the facilities to attract new members.
Mackie said the club was still hopeful that it could secure a sale before the mortgagee tender. “We are in negotiation with a purchaser,” he said.
Mackie, 34, is the youngest member of the club and joined the committee because “no one else wanted the job”. He has been associated with bowling for around 25 years and runs Hunter Bowls, a bowling shop, from the premises. Two other businesses, a catering company and a karate dojo, also operate at the grounds.
The mortgagee listing focused on the development opportunity in the land: “Developers, land-bankers and strategic investors, this is your chance to secure a rare offering in a tightly held suburb.”
Earlier this year, a 1.5ha Newmarket site that was previously home to the Carlton Bowling Club and had a combined RV of more than $60m sold to a mystery buyer after sitting vacant for more than 20 years.
– 20-20A Kalmia Street, Ellerslie, Auckland, is for sale, tender closing September 18