Developer spent $7M to make way for hotel

Press, 13 May 1987, Page 9

Developer spent $7M to make way for hotel

By

LEN PERKINSON

property reporter Windsor Central, Ltd, a subsidiary of the Auck-land-based developer behind the $lOO million Sheraton hotel earmarked for Christchurch, spent nearly $7 million buying up properties to make way for the nine-storey hotel.

A former Windsor Central director, Mr Geoff Beadel, a Christchurch solicitor, told “The Press” last evening that the company had been sold and the directors had resigned. He would not clarify the circumstances of their resignation and would "neither confirm nor deny” if it had been sold to an Auckland developer, Partington Properties.

Mr Steve Madigan, chief executive of Partington, was not available for comment yesterday. But last week, Mr Madigan confirmed that a subsidiary of Partington paid a deposit for the N.Z.M.C. site on Gloucester and Worcester Streets.

The companies Registry in Christchurch shows Windsor Central as the purchaser of that site. The price paid, in October last year, was $4.65 million.

■ Windsor Central is also listed as paying $620,000 for the Lutheran Church

on the comer of Montreal and Worcester Streets in the same month. It has also bought property in Montreal Street from an unlisted company called Attica Corporation. A sum of $1.4 million was paid for a site on Montreal Street, again in October, last year.

Now, according to a “Press” source, the only property remaining to complete the site for the 300-room Sheraton hotel is the old tennis courts on Montreal Street, which belong to the Education Department. News media reports last week suggested there would be difficulty in Partington’s acquiring the 0.2 hectare tennis courts and that could jeopardise development of the luxury tourist hotel.

But yesterday Mr Lawrie Kenworthy, the Christchurch manager of Landcorp, which administers the land the courts are built on, said he forsaw no such difficulties.

The courts were subject to a statutory requirement under the Public works Act which required the original owners be offered the land back before it could be transferred to Landcorp for disposal.

The requirement has been fulfilled and, as yet, nobody had come forward

in response to advertisements from the Ministry of Works and Development

Mr Kenworthy explained that once the statutory requirements were cleared, Landcorp was then free to offer the property for sale by auction, tender or private treaty. Nevertheless, there could be a hitch in Partington securing the site, believed, to be vital for the hotel’s development. Mr Kenworthy said there had been “quite a lot of people interested in the site.”

But the Minister of Tourism, Mr Moore, has registered an interest in the site on the developer’s behalf.

Last week, Mr Madigan was maintaining it was “speculation” that Partington wanted the tennis courts in addition to the N.Z.M.C. site. The “Press” source said it was unlikely the developer would have a problem securing the land. With the Minister behind the hotel there would be little difficulty and the company should get a fair deal.

It was essential that Partington acquired the land and he was convinced that if it did not the development could be jeopardised.