Sustainability and Luxury Meet in Whitianga Waterways

Waterside Sustainable Developments and W10 have plans for an eco-development in the heart of ’s region. The community will feature 12 floating home sites, each with its own 18m berth and option for floating pool.

The floating homes at Whitianga will feature the latest technology in floating platform construction. The development team has collaborated with renowned marina builder, Bellingham Marine, to design the homes’ floating base.

Whitianga, New Zealand – 15 June 2018 – The Floating Homes project is the brainchild of Kerry Martin, Nicolas Lee and Gregor Hoheisel. Kerry and Nic founded Waterside Sustainable Developments to deliver sustainable home projects. The project is providing exceptional homes with all the benefits of waterfront living, while being flood proof against predicted sea level rise.

Kerry is a former investment banker and has over 12 years’ experience pioneering floating structures in Europe. Nic, a sustainability enthusiast, has a background in mathematics, packaging industries and real estate development. Gregor is teaching sustainability and design at the School of Architecture and planning at the University of , and with his company W10 Ltd. will provide design skills and international expertise to the project.

Kerry and Gregor first met at the Panuku (Auckland Council Development Team) “Water Edge” symposium for waterfront development leaders. Gregor, along with other world-renowned architects and city planners, presented his ideas on how Onehunga, a semi-industrial waterfront community in Auckland, could reactivate its waterfront.

TOES, “The Onehunga Enhancement Society”, in which Kerry was engaged in a leading role, was so impressed with Gregor's work that TOES and the Onehunga Business Association commissioned him to develop an alternative design for the East West Link and Onehunga’s waterfront.

Ever since, Kerry Martin, a former professional wakeboarder, and Gregor, an avid surfer living at a west coast beach in Auckland, continued to collaborate on projects related to visionary architecture around water. Together they presented a proposal for a floating Americas Cup Village. This body of work has reawakened Kerry’s hunger to deliver beautiful and unique floating homes.

With Hopper Developments, renowned for their outstanding waterfront living projects in Whitianga, and Marsden Cove, they found an ideal partner to deliver the first floating home prototypes, as part of a new marine district at the Whitianga Waterways. This unique location will allow each house to have its own 18m berth, offering the unique opportunity to step from your house right onto your boat.

Bellingham Marine, the world leader in concrete pontoon and floating platform design, will provide the critical floating platforms for the homes and in-water berths. Bellingham has been involved in a number of floating home communities including the recently completed luxurious Marasi Business Bay waterfront development in Dubai.

For the next step of the development at Whitianga Waterways, the team is looking for interested individuals who can envision themselves living in such a floating home, with all the natural wonders of Coromandel at their doorstep. The interested individuals will have the opportunity to work actively with the development team and as such can tailor the project to their needs. If keen, the future homeowner can have the planning and realisation of their home professionally documented as Grand Designs is interested in following this outstanding project and present it on TV. If interested, please contact us at [email protected]

For further information, please contact: Kerry W Martin Waterside Sustainable Developments +64 021 201 7776 [email protected] [email protected]