It’s modern urban living only 12km’s to the CBD. It’s fresh, it’s new and it’s now. Fenchurch Park is centred around a recreational park.
The park is the hub of this new community offering something for everyone. Every detail has been put into creating a vibrant place to live with fully landscaped open streets, established trees and lane ways between smaller enclaves of homes.
Creating a new neighbourhood involves much more than simply building houses and hoping people will come. Sure, housing is important – and we’ll come to that later – but just as crucial is developing place-making initiatives that will generate a sense of community and well-being, to assure people that they are making the right decision moving into the area.
This idea of creating social hubs around which a new community can grow and prosper is one of the cornerstones of the redevelopment of the Fenchurch neighbourhood in Glen Innes. Right from the outset, its new residents were asked about their needs and priorities. And as a direct result, a new early childhood education centre was established and the existing Scout Hall re-designated as a community hall – and re-named Te Whare Piringa, meaning Our Place, thus creating a social and activity hub for the new neighbourhood.
Right in the centre of the new Fenchurch community is Fenchurch Park, a micro neighbourhood of just 114 homes of various typologies. As its name suggests, this new community is being built around a central recreational park that has been designed to encourage communal activity and build a genuine sense of community.
Fenchurch Park has mixed lots of freestanding and terraced homes, bringing together the best of the most popular designs. Designed with diversity in mind, the varied housing typologies offer something for everyone – from affordable housing first-time couples, right through to established families looking for their next-stage home. There are freestanding, terraced and duplex-style houses, with two-, three, four and five-bedroom configurations, ranging from one to three levels – some of which have clear sea views from the master bedrooms on the upper floors. So, there really is almost every combination imaginable.
One of the key selling points of the homes at Fenchurch Park is that they are all designed and built by G.J. Gardner Homes – a known and trusted brand that offers a 10-year Certified Builders Warranty for added peace of mind. G.J. Gardner-built homes offer minimum standards that are over and above many of their competitors, with specifications and features you would normally find in million-dollar-plus properties. For example, they have higher and wider internal doors, wider-than-normal stairs and hallways, 2.7m studs, larger windows that let in more light… the list goes on. And although these upgrades may appear to be comparatively small when looked at individually, collectively they make a substantial difference to the quality of living for their new owners.
Located just over a kilometre from the multi-million dollar streets of Glendowie, and less than half that distance to the beautiful nature reserves of Wai O Taiki and Tahuna Torea, with their coastal walks and cycleways fringing the Tamaki Estuary, Fenchurch Park’s location belies its price tag.
The eastern beachside suburbs of St Heliers, Kohimaramara and Mission Bay are just a short drive to the north, and the same distance in the other direction are Sylvia Park and the Southern Motorway.
And for those working in the CBD, Glen Innes station – 10mins by bus – is just 12km or a 15min train ride into the city.
Fenchurch Park has attracted a diverse demographic of new home owners. The result is a real melting pot of ethnicities, ages and backgrounds, which has led to a diverse, yet tight-knit little community developing around the ‘Park’.
Few of the new residents are local – with most attracted to this regenerated neighbourhood because of the quality of houses, the community based local amenities and schools, and of course Fenchurch Park’s coastal location and excellent transport connections to the city.
