Nelson’s newest apartment building is finally complete, and there are hopes that it could breathe new life into the CBD.
Dubbed the “Jewel of Nelson” with 31 spaces ranging from three, two and one-bedroom apartments with “stunning” vistas, Haven Rd’s six-storey apartment building is complete.
Nelson-based Vining Investment Properties director Tony Vining says, despite construction being hampered by Nelson’s severe weather event in August 2022, he was “pretty happy” with Haven Apartments’ finished product which came across the line on 18 December, 2024.
“The foundations were fully excavated and we had a relatively small slip at the very back of the site caused by our excavations,” he says. “But, of course, that meant that the site had to be made safe, and that took about seven months to get it sorted.
“For a project that size to be that close to the original [November] timeline is still amazing… CBDs need to have vitality, and for that to happen you need people in the CBD, without a vibrant, healthy CBD, the CBD will die.”
Tony says his company had owned the site since 2015 or 2016 and it was approached by Nelson City Council about apartments to occupy the space, to bolster CBD revitalisation, investment and development.
The development’s proposal was granted special housing area status by the council in 2019, and construction, which included the use of eco-friendly timber framing, got underway later that year.
Harcourts Nelson is marketing and selling the remaining apartments and its owner Chris Davies says the upside of Haven Apartments and its location was that rentals could be more affordable.
“The cost of living goes down because you’re in close proximity to everything, you’re not driving everywhere, you don’t need to be mowing the lawns and paying for those added extras as well,” he says. “We need to see more of it and the more property that’s out there, then the less likely the prices are going to skyrocket.”
