Commercial flooring firm Lovich Floors was one of around 60 subcontractors owed money for work on Du Val sites who attended.
Lovich Floors co-owner Pam Lovich likened the presentation by Du Val directors Kenyon Clarke and others to an episode of British 19th-century television drama, Peaky Blinders.
A fired-up Clarke blamed the group’s financiers for the situation and told the subbies they could either continue supporting Du Val and get further work, or they would get nothing, Lovich claimed.
Lovich said the meeting was highly unusual.
“Oh my God, I thought I was in the set for Peaky Blinders, to be honest, it felt like that, people with slicked-back hair.
“It was subtle bullying, I felt, and just another lot of rubbish, using people and their money to benefit themselves,” she claimed.
Clarke declined to comment on the allegations.
‘Not sufficient to fully repay’
PwC confirmed it had recently sold the Sunnyvale Terraces project, a 5500sq m site in Sunnyvale, West Auckland, where 46 residential units were planned.
It did not say who the purchaser was, but in its second statutory managers’ report in September, it said it was in discussions with the first mortgage holder, US-based Clearwater Capital, regarding a transaction.
Sunnyvale had three mortgages on it, with Du Val investors through Du Val Capital Partners (DVCP) and another Du Val entity ranking behind Clearwater.
It had completed civil construction on the site with the support of Clearwater, PwC said in its report.
It had also sold the remaining townhouses at the Te Awa Terraces development in Māngere East in a bulk deal, PwC said.
At the nearby 180-unit Mountain Vista Estate development, it had also sold several townhouses in a bulk transaction.
Clearwater Capital was the first mortgage holder on both sites, while Du Val Capital Partners held the second mortgages.
It also did not identify the buyer in these cases, but had earlier said in its report that it was talking to the first mortgage holder about possible deals.
It had worked with Clearwater to continue work at the three sites, it said.
“The transactions above were not sufficient to fully repay the first-ranking secured lender, and subsequent mortgages were discharged as part of the transfer process,” PwC statutory manager John Fisk said.
‘Edmonton site not sold’
PwC had not yet found a buyer for another Du Val development site, Edmonton Mews on Edmonton Rd in Henderson, Fisk said.
“It is an undeveloped site across a number of titles, and no substantive works were in progress at the date of our appointment.”
In its September statutory managers’ report, PwC said it was also consulting with Clearwater regarding a potential transaction involving the project.
Edmonton Mews has four mortgages. Clearwater is the first-ranking lender, with the site’s vendors holding second mortgages, and Du Val Capital Partners and the entity that owned Te Awa Terraces holding subsequent mortgages.
Du Val co-founder Kenyon Clarke claimed on Instagram that the Edmonton project, along with Sunnyvale, Mountain Vista and Te Awa, had been sold by PwC to their original delivery team.
The sales proved the developments were viable all along and “the destruction of value occurred only after statutory management was imposed”, he alleged.
The Fall of the House of Du Val was made with the support of the Milford Foundation’s Brian Gaynor Business Journalism Initiative and MoneyHub.