- The Sculptureum near Omaha is for sale, expected to break local price records.
- Sandra and Anthony Grant are selling the 10.1ha estate, which includes art by Picasso and Warhol.
- Kelly Hamilton is marketing it, highlighting potential for development alongside nearby tourism properties.
The sculpture garden and gallery next to New Zealand’s wealthiest beach town has hit the market for sale, and the listing agent is expecting it to break local price records.
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New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty listing agent Kelly Hamilton is marketing the Sculptureum, on the outskirts of Omaha, via the company’s global art arm as well as its property division.
Vendors Sandra and Anthony Grant are ready to hand over the 10.1ha estate at 38-40 Omaha Flats Road to creative new owners after 20 years of hard work.
The couple, who are barristers by profession, have welcomed at least 70,000 visitors through the Sculptureum, which includes works by Picasso, Rodin and Andy Warhol.
The Sculptureum has welcomed at least 70,000 visitors since it opened its doors in 2017. Photo / Supplied
The gallery includes works by Picasso and Warhol. Photo / Supplied
Also up for grabs is the estate’s award-winning restaurant, Rothko. Photo / Supplied
The Grants told OneRoof earlier this year, when the property was with another agency, that they were seeking buyers with over $20 million to spend – and millions more on the property’s art collection. “There is probably about $3.5m worth of art,” Sandra told OneRoof. The collection, started by Anthony in the 1980s, is up to 800 works now, 400 of which the couple display at the Sculptureum.
“We have a few Andy Warhols. We don’t have millions and millions of dollars of these works. They are affordable. The [art] dealers know Anthony really well. He would get 20 to 30 emails a day from art dealers all around the world. He’s constantly on the lookout for interesting works.”
Hamilton told OneRoof this week that in an unusual move, she was co-operating with the agents from competing brands who are selling two other significant tourism properties across the road: Matakana Country Park, the 12ha hospitality and tourism park that runs between Omaha Flats Road and Leigh Road, and the proposed NoMA wellness precinct on 2.74ha at 53 Omaha Flats Road.
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Bayleys agents Henry Napier, Mike Houlker and Ben Clare are marketing the country park, which is zoned for hospitality and accommodation, as well as recreation, while Ray White Commercial’s Richard Bull and Richard Turner have the fully consented plans for the 15-villa luxury NoMA resort.
“This collaborative approach is not really done [here], but is happening overseas,” Hamilton said. She said her commercial property and marketing experience in Singapore and Sydney helped her recognise the wider opportunity if the three adjoining properties were pitched together as a 26ha corridor.
“There is a very compelling destination precinct thesis for this. Knowing what Matakana is like, and looking at developments like Queenstown’s Ayrburn, I’m encouraging someone with a bit of vision to come and have a look at this.”
The approach is already drawing interest from Singapore buyers. Hamilton said the three properties could be developed to match global art and luxury wellness destinations such as Hauser & Wirth in the UK, Chateau La Coste in France and Six Senses globally.
The 10ha-plus estate at 38 and 40 Omaha Flats Road is being pitched as a development opportunity. Photo / Supplied
An artist’s impression of the proposed NoMA wellness precinct at 53 Omaha Flats Road, which is for sale. Photo / Supplied
Also up for grabs is the nearby Matakana Country Park. Photo / Supplied
Hamilton said she expected the property to break local price records. “We’re hoping for the Andersons Cove effect,” she said, referring to the more than $50m reportedly paid this month for a private luxury resort on Bream Tail Road, in Langs Beach, Whangarei.
“I think that something which is based in creativity to really draw people in could be amazing.”
The Grants told OneRoof earlier this year that they decided to sell so they could spend more time travelling.
The couple opened the gates of the gallery in 2017 and are deeply enmeshed in its operation. Anthony still manages all the curation, rotating works and posting enthusiastically on social media about his favourite pieces.
“We’ve had a lot of fun out of doing what we’ve done. It is great for the soul, seeing people come through our project and how everyone smiles and laughs. I have to tell you, law isn’t always like that,” Sandra said, adding that they were already thinking about their next project, perhaps a smaller art-focused venture near their Queenstown holiday home.
Sandra told OneRoof that they bought 38 Omaha Flats Road in 2005 with the intention of sharing their art collection with the world. After combing the country, they picked a spot between Matakana and Omaha, on the northern fringes of Auckland’s Rodney district.
“We always bought [art] with the intention that we wanted to share it with other people who perhaps didn’t have the same benefits as us of having had the ability to travel all over the world and collect art,” she said.
“We wanted people to be able to see all of the wonderful and diverse forms that art can take.”
After buying the 5.69ha hill property at 38 Omaha Flats Road for $1.29m, they realised that the flat land next door would be a better site for the gardens and galleries they envisaged, so they bought number 40 for $1.98m.
They converted the existing four-bedroom house to offices for the business (there are 22 staff who work across the gardens, event business, restaurant and galleries) and a one-bedroom flat for themselves and rolled up their sleeves. Their inspiration came from the hundreds of galleries they had seen on their global travels.
“We wanted to make it playful. We didn’t want it to be too serious. We wanted it to be an Aladdin’s Cave.”
The Grants spent $250,000 alone to recontour the land and replant the vines at 38 Omaha Flats Road, with their Oak Hill Vineyard now supplying up to 14,000 bottles a year to Rothko.
- 38-40 Omaha Flats Road, Matakana, Auckland, is for sale
