About

A new waterfront neighbourhood on a former air force seaplane base at Hobsonville Point.

Catalina Bay

Project Lead

Cristean Monreal

Client

Willis Bond

Service

Management

Location

Auckland

Sector

Residential

Status

Completed 2024

Catalina Bay at Hobsonville Point was a Royal New Zealand Air Force seaplane base, home to the Short Sunderland flying boats from 1929 until military flying ended in 2002. From 2016 Willis Bond began turning the waterfront into a neighbourhood, keeping the heritage buildings and adding homes and hospitality around them. Catalina Bay Apartments would be its residential centrepiece, 73 homes across two towers and nine ground-floor townhouses at the water's edge, with the ferry at the door.

Building them carried real difficulty. The ground had been used by the military for decades and held its share of unknowns, the harbour edge, underlined by the storms of 2023, meant the apartments had to stand up to worse weather to come, and Covid unsettled cost and supply through the middle of the job, all while the neighbourhood around the site kept working and its bus routes kept running.

From hangar to homes

RCP worked alongside Willis Bond across the development, starting with The Hangar, a 1920s seaplane hangar brought back to life as a mixed-use building with the Little Creatures brewery on the ground floor, then the apartments themselves, which RCP guided through consenting, design and procurement while advising on how the homes would sell. Much of the team had delivered earlier Willis Bond projects together, and that shared history helped a complicated waterfront build come together, with RCP securing the funding and contracts and laying the groundwork for construction.

Completed in June 2024, the apartments sit among the brewery, cafés, offices and farmers' market of the precinct's repurposed heritage buildings, with city views and generous natural light and the harbour on the doorstep. Built to a 5 Homestar rating, Catalina Bay took the excellence award for residential at the 2025 Property Council awards.

Awards

2025 Property Council New Zealand Property Industry Awards, Excellence, Residential