Takapuna’s new $35m Loxley Apartments have been empty for a year: Owner Wayne Wright jnr details plans

A newly built, never-lived-in 46-unit Takapuna apartment block remains empty more than a year after it was built, but that could change soon.

New property owner Wayne Wright jnr of Tauranga’s Wright family investment business said there was a good explanation for why no Loxley Apartment units had been sold and why no one lived there.

The sorry Loxley story is one of the starkest examples of the dire state of Auckland’s apartment property market, flooded with unsold units.

It got built, but not a single sales transaction ever settled.

Not only were units not sold and deals not settled on construction completion, but an entire year has passed after attempts were made to sell the whole block at a desperate last-ditch mortgagee sale.

The north-facing units are flooded with sunlight, the high-quality double glazing providing warm, fit-for-purpose homes in chilly mid-winter Auckland. Views from the top look out over surrounding areas, some towards the water.

So why has this highly glazed temple to apartment life never attracted a single resident?

To trace why Loxley’s units have remained empty for all this time, it’s necessary to look back.

Back story

The apartment block is located on Tennyson Ave, a cul-de-sac street of mainly single-level homes on standalone sites.

Esmonde Rd runs parallel with Tennyson Ave and there are bus stops connecting to the motorway at Takapuna, from which it’s often only a 10- to 20-minute bus ride into the CBD.

In 2017, the Herald published an article on Loxley, detailing how plans were proposed for two big, five-level apartment blocks filling two sites side by side.

Loxley was a graphic image of how Auckland streetscapes were changing under the new Unitary plan in one big proposal on the North Shore, that article said.

In 2018, development of the property was reported on by the Herald as things progressed.

It was radical at the time because the development was proposed with no car parks.

Car-stacker machines were instead planned to maximise use of space.

Two five-level blocks with 46 units and 43 car parking spaces were proposed.

The development also included six pairs of stacked parking in the two-level basement with bike stands.

Developer’s trouble

The developer was Andrew Bendemski, the sole director of Tennyson GCO.

He is a former bankrupt.

Bendemski struck financial difficulties with Loxley as the market turned.

Many of his companies went into receivership or liquidation.

But there were other issues, too.

The Press reported how Bendemski had three sexual assault convictions.

He was found guilty by a jury in August 2023 of three charges of sexual violation of a 10-year-old girl and sentenced to three years’ jail.

In April last year, liquidator Simon Dalton of Gerry Rea Partners was appointed to Tennyson GCO by its shareholders.

“The company operated a residential development business in the Auckland region. The receivers and liquidators of the shareholding companies identified related-party debts owing by the company and resolved to place the company into liquidation,” Dalton’s initial report said.

The company owns 32 and 34 Tennyson Ave, “which is being developed into an apartment complex that, we understand, is due to be completed in the coming weeks”, the liquidator’s first report said.

First attempt to sell

Then in June last year, two Colliers agents tried to sell the entire block under the mortgagee sale process.

Realtors Shoneet Chand and Josh Coburn indicated an appetite to move the apartment block.

Colliers has been exclusively appointed by the mortgagee to market the high-quality development, the advertisement said.

“With a motivated vendor, the property is being offered for sale by way of deadline private treaty.

“It is a rare opportunity to acquire all 46 completed apartments, each finished to a superior and modern standard, over two standalone buildings.

“With no committed contracts, the property offers the incoming purchaser an opportunity to repurpose it as a build-to-rent investment, supported by strong nearby amenities and convenient public transport links.”

Today, Josh Coburn of Colliers said although Loxley looked completed last year, it was not.

No code compliance had been issued.

Also, remediations were still to be carried out.

Those were for paint, appliance, carpet and driveway issues, Coburn said.

Who funded Loxley?

Last year, the Herald reported how the title showed WFT Finance as holding a mortgage over the property, along with a list of other financiers.

Wayne Wright jnr, co-founder and trustee of prominent charity the Wright Family Foundation in Tauranga, is listed by the Companies Office as WFT Finance’s sole director.

The family has been assessed as having $400 million by the National Business Review, with the majority of their wealth derived from the sale of childcare operator Best Start.

Today, the title shows money owing to the United States funder Quaestor Advisors LLC and WFT Finance.

Wright jnr said Quaestor was “now not part of the landscape”.

New owner

Via the liquidator, Wright jnr bought the Loxley through his newly-incorporated Loxley Apartments, registered in June last year.

Wright took possession because the family finance business had loaned that developer’s company money to build the units.

The Herald approached Wright about all this to try to understand why the block had been empty so long with no obvious prospect of sale or occupation.

Wayne Wright snr, one of the founders of the philanthropic Tauranga charity, died in March this year.

His son explained more but wanted to stress that WFT Finance and the Wright Family Foundation are separate entities.

They have no common trustees or directors, Wright said.

“Upon my father’s passing, I became managing director of the Wright Family Trust and all Wright family investment subsidiaries, including the Loxley Apartments,” Wright explained.

“Since taking over the project from liquidation, we have spent several million dollars completing the project and bringing it up to code.

“That work is almost complete, and we aim to take it to market very soon,” Wright jnr said.

“We are still considering options of individual unit sales or the entire block in one transaction.

“We believe the development has a combined total value north of $35m, but of course the market will judge that,” Wright said.

“I’ve had my feet under the desk only three months. When my father died in March, I became the managing director of all our commercial interests, which by extension made me the sole director of WFT Finance.”

Loxley apartments would take “millions” to complete in the project managed by Matvin Group, he said.

“If we do sell individually, I’ve reserved an apartment for myself. There’s a unit which looks across Bayswater Marina to downtown Auckland which is particularly fetching.”

And that’s where this sorry Loxley story could end – some good news for the financier, himself getting one of the best places.

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