Delay for Collett’s Corner

The team behind the country’s first crowdfunded commercial development have been turned-down for an $800,000 Government loan, meaning the project will be delayed by at least six months.

The $15.5 million three-storey Collett’s Corner complex on the corner of London and Oxford streets in Lyttelton was due to open in December 2022 but the funding scheme was stalled due to Covid-19.

Once completed, the Christchurch project will feature a wellness centre, hospitality outlets and shops on the ground floor and 20 privately owned apartments above.

Ohu Developments gained resource consent in March and hoped to attract further crowdfunded equity, but the plan was put on ice when the level 4 lockdown was introduced.

The team then applied for a Government ‘shovel ready’ project loan, which would have enabled them to keep to the original timeline, but were unsuccessful. They now hope to launch the crowdfunding campaign in October, pushing back the opening date to at least May 2023.

Project steward Camia Young – who purchased Collett’s Corner in 2013 and is a founding partner of Ohu Development – said she was surprised and disappointed the loan application had been unsuccessful.

‘‘It would have been awesome if we had the loan because we could have run the equity crowdfunding a little bit later and we could have kept the project on track and opened on time,’’ she said.

‘‘Because we weren’t granted it, the project continues to be on pause until we can run the equity crowdfunding.’’

She said they were not eligible for the loan because Collett’s Corner does not have employees, only contractors, and cannot demonstrate a loss of revenue ‘‘because we never had any revenue, such is the nature of property development’’.