Land resold after developer gives up

A SECTION of sports field at Kaikorai Valley College, sold in 2015, has again changed hands — this time to Dynes Transport Ltd.

The 6000sq m piece of land at the southern end of the Dunedin school’s sports field bordering Kaikorai Valley Rd, was initially sold by the Crown to Te Rununga o Ngai Tahu, under the right of first refusal provisions of the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998.

Later in 2015, it was sold on the open market to Auckland property developer Michael Block for an undisclosed amount.

He had planned to subdivide it into 11 residential sections of between 502sq m and 522sq m, costing from $89,000 each.

However, Mr Block said the process of obtaining resource consent for the development had proved too costly, and when Dynes Transport Ltd offered to buy the land (again for an undisclosed amount), he accepted.

‘‘The council weren’t overly easy to deal with . . . it wasn’t quite as straightforward as we had anticipated.

‘‘We got resource consent but there were costs associated with that.’’

Mr Block said he was not certain what Dynes had planned for the site, but believed it was not looking to pursue his plan of turning it into a residential subdivision.

‘‘What they’re doing with it, I’m not too sure.

‘‘I think they have an operational use planned for the site.’’

Kaikorai Valley College confirmed the land had been bought by Dynes Transport Ltd.

Dynes Transport Ltd declined to comment.

The school continues to maintain the property by mowing the grass.

Kaikorai Valley college disposed of the land after the school’s board of trustees asked the Ministry of Education to declare the land surplus in 2013.

It was not used by the school for daily education, and based on longterm roll growth forecasts, it was not expected to be needed in the future.

john.lewis@odt.co.nz