Style: June 04, 2021

20 Style | Feature
baby quizzically eyes the two women whose laughter has
A caused coffee to spill over the side of their cups. Such
merriment cannot be ignored and so, with arms pumping, the
baby soon chortles along too.
It’s mid-morning at The Colombo, Sydenham’s boutique
retail and entertainment centre on Colombo Street.
Generations gather to share hot drinks and friends show each
other what treasures they have found.
“This place still has that community vibe,” observes
Caroline Cooper-Dixon with a satisfied smile. After all,
that is what she and her mother, property developer Lilly
Cooper, intended.
The dynamic between this mother-daughter duo reflects
the activity around them. They are not just business partners
but great friends – the perfect synchronicity of different
generations working together in cohesion.
Their days start at 7.30am, when Caroline pops around the
corner to join Lilly so they can walk their dogs to Lux Espresso
on Gloucester Street for a coffee and a scone. Then it’s home
to change, ready for the first of a series of meetings at which
they will tag-team each other. The people they meet, says
Lilly, quite like the familial connection – and the way the pair
naturally banter. They effortlessly bring levity to the room.
But their day together doesn’t end with meetings.
“We’ll have dinner together, either with my brothers
[George and William] and their partners [Lucy and Bridget]
and mine [Harry], or one of us will cook for the other and
debrief on the day,” says Caroline. (Lilly loves to cook a roast
while Caroline prefers a cheeky gluten-free pasta.)
But make no mistake, they are a powerhouse development
duo who, with Selwyn District Council, are creating the
Rolleston Fields $85 million retail and hospitality town centre
in Selwyn. It will feature a retail precinct, with bars and eateries
plus an entertainment and cinema complex.
But before we get carried away looking at the future, we
head back to the 1980s, when a very determined 19-yearold
took the plunge into development with an eyebrowraising
purchase.
LILLY
If she had been born a boy, Lilly Cooper would have “had
a nail bag put on [her]” and been sent out to do construction.
“My father was a builder. But because I was a girl, I got into
property developing instead,” says Lilly.
But she wasn’t the type of person to cautiously dip her toe
in. She bought 14 houses in one hit.
“They were in two streets: Peacock Street and Beveridge
Street [Christchurch]. I’d bought them off one old lady who
lived in Nelson. I got a six-month delayed settlement. When
I settled them six months later, I sold all 14 of them on the
same day – I settled them in the morning and sold them in
the afternoon.”
ABOVE: The Colombo, a boutique retail and entertainment centre, was the first project mother and
daughter team Lilly Cooper and Caroline Cooper-Dixon worked on together. Photo: Supplied