The Seascape apartment project, developed by Shundi Customs and constructed by China Construction NZ, has come to a standstill.
Photo: RNZ / Ziming Li
The Seascape Tower is hard to miss on Auckland’s skyline, but a date for its completion remains uncertain after yet another setback.
The owner and developer, Shundi Customs, of the 187-metre, $300 million development near the waterfront has been put into receivership.
Receivers Brendon Gibson and Neale Jackson of Calibre Partners said the immediate priority was to ensure the building continued to be safe and secure.
It comes after construction was abruptly stopped in August 2024 due to a dispute between the builder China Construction, and Shundi.
The planned luxury skyscraper, if completed, would be New Zealand’s tallest residential building at 56 storeys.
Seascape residential tower in Auckland.
Photo: Sharon Brettkelly
But with little work done since, and an owner that’s now gone under, the question remains if the tower would ever be finished.
New Zealand Herald’s property editor Anne Gibson has been across Seascape’s developments since work started and told Nine to Nine she first heard of issues in May 2024, after a party had leaked a decision from a private Building Disputes Tribunal to her.
“Sounds like it’s an arm of the state, but it’s actually not and there was a ruling there to say that the developers of the Seascape tower, Shundi Customs, owed the builders, China Construction, one of the largest building companies in the world, a sum of $33 million,” she said.
“The developer was deducting amounts for disallowed costs and liquidated damages and John Green, from the Building Disputes Tribunal, ruled that that was invalid.”
There were disputes about the date for completion of the Seascape Tower and what were the circumstances for the completion of it, Gibson said.
Builders working on Auckland’s Seascape tower were told to down tools in late August.
Photo: Sharon Brettkelly
Gibson said there was further High Court action with Shundi demanding that China Construction get its paperwork back to China.
“That was a very involved High Court case and then when China Construction – which had been awarded that $33 million in the tribunal – didn’t get paid the money, it applied to liquidate Shundi Customs over the unpaid debt,” she said.
Gibson said Auckland Council had an important role, with its head of resource consents telling her that it was their job to ensure the site remained safe.
“I think every few weeks Auckland Council has external consultants go onto the site, which I understand is quite terrifying because it’s open up to 56 levels if there’s a southerly wind blowing, it’ll be pretty scary. You have to hang on to columns and things.
“These experts go up there and they ensure that the site is compliant in terms of site safety so bits can’t blow off or that it’s not endangering life. That’s what the council’s role is essentially with this.”
Photo: RNZ / Ziming Li
Gibson said she could see three scenarios playing out.
“The first is that the receivers from Calibre Partners do sell it and then another builder or another owner takes control and gets a builder to finish it and everyone gets their new apartments. That’s the first one. That’s the best scenario,” she said.
“Second one, not so good. It remains like it is for a lot longer, a testament to sort of failure in our biggest city, two blocks from the waterfront.
“The third one is New Zealand’s biggest demolition job.”
Gibson said for it to be demolished, someone with money would have to come along and rather than actually demolishing it, Seascape would effectively deconstructed floor by floor, she said.
She said experts in the sector told her that would costs tens of millions of dollars.
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