Shundi receivers sell Chinese developer’s 9.5ha St Johns site: ghost tower Seascape next?

Shundi Tāmaki Village bought the site from the University of Auckland and planned a huge development which it never began.

Auckland Council values 261 Morrin Rd at $19 million for rating purposes.

Plans by Shundi Tāmaki Village for the St Johns land it bought from the University of Auckland.

Shundi Tāmaki Village had planned to build Te Tauoma – a $1 billion-plus residential and mixed-use project on the 9.6ha St Johns site.

The project was designed as a town in a park featuring thousands of apartments, a number of commercial buildings and community uses.

Shundi Tāmaki Village planned this new development with apartments for about 5000 people at St Johns.

Te Tauoma was to be:

1500 units targeted at the mid-range market, planned in several stages;Towers of 14 and 18 storeys for a further 191 apartments;19 buildings for offices, a medical centre, a kindergarten, cafes, restaurants and a performance space.

The Environmental Protection Authority granted fast-track consent to Shundi Tāmaki Village for the first stage.

Peterken said the site had eight buildings and Stonefields was nearby.

Blair Peterken of Colliers. Photo / Colliers

A large grey office building on Morrin Rd was the biggest and had a number of tenants, he said.

Seven buildings behind that are empty but the university once occupied those.

“Those seven older buildings in behind the main offices could be refurbished and leased,” he said.

Peterken told the Herald in May that a retirement or education business may be interested in buying the property.

Liquidators have also been appointed to Shundi Tāmaki Village, issuing their first report on October 22.

Deloitte liquidators said the company operated as a property developer and was part of the wider Shundi Group.

It owned and was developing land previously utilised as the former University of Auckland campus, in several titles, consisting of a mix of commercial buildings and development land.

Shundi Tāmaki Village opposed the liquidation in a matter heard by the High Court on September 10.

Auckland’s unfinished Seascape tower yesterday. Photo / Cameron Pitney

China Construction New Zealand made a claim from a settlement agreement relating to the Seascape tower dispute with a sister company, Shundi Customs.

That company partly built the 56-level, $300m apartments on Customs St East, but China Construction Bank appointed receivers on March 4.

Shundi Tāmaki had guaranteed Shundi Customs’ obligations. China Construction is owed $181.3m by Shundi Customs, although that has risen lately to $189m, the Deloitte report said.

While Shundi Tāmaki accepted that creditors were owed the amounts claimed and that it was unable to pay its debts, it opposed liquidation and sought an adjournment to allow certain proposed transactions and third-party asset realisations to be completed.

The company argued that, if completed, the proposed transactions would produce sufficient funds to repay the petitioning creditors and avoid liquidation.

Towering ghost: Seascape stands abandoned and unfinished while negotiations are underway to sell it. Photo / Cameron Pitney

“The court ordered liquidation and declined to defer the proceedings, finding that the company’s proposed alternatives to liquidation were uncertain, dependent on future events and did not outweigh creditors’ statutory entitlement to a liquidation order,” Deloitte’s liquidators David Webb and Robert Campbell wrote.

Planning business Tattico, Inland Revenue, Hire Plants, China Construction Bank Corporation, Unicom New Zealand and Waste Management are creditors.

So are Anthony Harper, Archiland, JW Fire, Meridian Energy, Simplicity Security and Auckland Council’s Watercare.

Seascape sale?

Singapore Stock Exchange-listed Hotel Properties is understood to be doing due diligence on Seascape, although that has not been confirmed yet.

That company is understood to be planning to convert the apartment building into a hotel, although questions put to it remain unanswered.

Stephen Lau of HPL Hotels & Resorts did not respond to questions about whether that business was negotiating to buy the ghost tower.

HPL bought the InterContinental Auckland from Precinct Properties for $180m, marking its continued expansion into the New Zealand hotel market.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 26 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.

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