One of central Queenstown’s most stunning homes, newly on the market, also enjoys an amazing location.
At 134 Park Street, the almost-brand-new three bedroom home, with a matching side-by-side two-bedroom ‘flat’, rises three floors over the
town’s original butcher’s shop, which dates back about 100 years.
Property owner and artist Lynda Hensman opened this old building as an art gallery, called The Ivy Box, in 2016 — ironically it’s covered instead with Virginia creeper but, as she says, ‘The Virginia Creeper Box’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
However the gallery, which had a ’70s add-on on top, was freezing, and in 2017 she commissioned local architect Thom Ibbotson, of Yoke Architecture, to design a substantial home while retaining the gallery’s old schist walls.
Builders removing a floor had about 90 years of rats’ droppings fall on them.
‘‘I had to buy them more than one slab of beer — that was the only thing holding up the building, that and the ivy/Virginia creeper.’’
Hensman got inspiration for the design from a visit to Berlin, in Germany, ‘‘where I saw modern architecture with a relationship to older buildings’’.
‘‘I wanted to create some thing like that.’’
She chose Ibbotson ‘‘as I wanted someone young and innovative I could bounce my ideas off, and Thom is a perfect combination of grounded and not over the top, and still innovative and fresh’’.
Hensman says she, her architect and builder, Just Build It NZ, ‘‘collaborated really well, that’s why it was such a great project’’.
Ibbotson says his client’s ‘‘personality and artistic flair has driven the strong forms and bold aesthetics with raw materials, including concrete block, steel and glass’’.
‘‘The interior spaces build on the raw approach with more steel, render, dark timber and monochromatic tones that let her artworks really pop.’’
He adds the site’s location right beside Jubilee Park and its extensive lake and mountain views provided ‘‘a dream canvas to work on’’.
When the build finished in 2021, Hensman reopened her gallery.
She’s since decided on ‘‘a change of pace’’, however, and has put the property on the market with local New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agents Gerard Bligh and Hadley van Schaik.
‘‘I’m so excited to pass this on to another family, another generation — for me it’s like creating a painting and then you let it go to the person who resonates with it.’’
The information memorandum suggests a new owner could convert the gallery into a wine cellar, gym, office or more accommodation.
Bligh calls the home ‘‘real luxury on the lake’’.
‘‘There’s been no compromise on quality or on cost, Lynda’s pulled off a property that is of the highest standard, and I think discerning buyers will be very impressed with it.’’
The location’s also wonderful — ‘‘you can walk across the road, put your little boat in the water or go swimming or just enjoy the area’’.
He notes traffic’s also not too bad in that part of Park St.
Bligh says there’s been good interest from owner-occupiers and holiday home buyers, largely from Australia or Auckland.
For sale by ‘price by negotiation’, Mountain Scene understands it’s likely to fetch north of $10 million.
