Another developer claims plan rejected

ANOTHER Wellington developer says his offer to buy and develop a prime site on the city’s waterfront was rejected by Wellington Waterfront, the council-owned company that selected an Auckland development company to build a sixstorey office block on the site.

Richard Burrell, of Building Solutions, said he offered $13.5 million for the development site just north of Queens Wharf. At present it is a campervan park.

This was almost twice the amount he understood Auckland developer Newcrest had agreed to pay for the site.

‘‘In February I gave them an offer for $13.5 million unconditional and [Wellington Waterfront chief executive] Ian Pike two days later asked me to withdraw it because it was an embarrassment to Wellington Waterfront because they had contracted the site for $7.5 million.’’

Allegations about the proposal have prompted Wellington City Council to get an independent review of the Newcrest deal.

However, Mr Pike said Mr Burrell’s claims were wrong and misleading on every point.

He denied asking him to withdraw his offer because it was embarrassing.

‘‘I said we were on the cusp of going out on a public consultation process with regards to an arrangement with Newcrest, which we did two days later.’’

Mr Burrell’s comments follow a complaint by another Wellington developer, Grant Corleison, who put in a $15m bid on behalf of codeveloper Mark Dunajtschik to develop 30 apartments on the site.

Wellington Tenths trustee Peter Love also recently criticised Wellington Waterfront for choosing Newcrest to develop the site without putting the project out to tender because no-one else was in the market.

Mr Love said this was ‘‘insane’’ and the waterfront company could not conduct business on behalf of Wellington ratepayers like this.

Mr Burrell said it was clear Wellington Waterfront had not followed due process.

‘‘There has been no process. They should get a design, get a resource consent and then take it to the market, the same as they did with the Meridian building.

‘‘They’re fire-selling the site to Aucklanders.’’

Wellington Waterfront’s handling of the most valuable site on the waterfront cried out for an independent assessment, he said.

There were at least three or four Wellington developers who were interested in bidding, Mr Burrell said.

Mr Pike said there was no question that Wellington Waterfront was copping a lot of flak over the Newcrest proposal but the fact that it was doing something was always going to attract adverse attention.

The council had commissioned an independent review and ‘‘it will not sign off on this deal unless they are confident that they had the best deal’’.

He said he view.

‘‘We’re confident in terms of our process, our pricing and the expected outcome.’’

Council spokesman Richard Maclean said reviews had been done by Colliers valuers, council legal advisers and property consultants.

These would be made available to the council’s strategy and policy committee.

The committee would consider the Newcrest office block proposal after the Environment Court delivered its decision on a Waterfront Watch challenge to Variation 11 to the district plan, which would clear the way for development of that scale on the waterfront.

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