Developer says company liquidations 'completely unrelated' to Timaru projects
Tuesday, 19 September 2023
The man behind two of Timaru's biggest developments says the liquidation of three of his companies will not impact on work at The Showgrounds, or a business park proposed for the town’s north end.
Tony Gapes is listed as the sole director and shareholder of Gorge H Development Ltd, East Link Ltd, and Mico Development Ltd – all of which have been put in liquidation in the past seven months.
Gapes is the developer of Timaru's The Showgrounds retail complex on State Highway 1/Evans St, and The Showgrounds Business Park at 3-7 Eversley St.
According to Stephen Lawrence’s six-monthly liquidator’s report, dated September 13, Mico Development owes $368,932.78 to secured, preferential and unsecured creditors, as well as $531,905.38 to the applicant creditor Acium Construction.
Following the liquidation of Acium on February 9, 2021, liquidators sought to recover certain voidable transactions from Mico Development of $505,813.02 plus interest and costs, the report says.
Due to non-payment of the debt, Acium liquidators filed liquidation proceedings in the High Court, “which we understand were initially defended, but ultimately on February 17, 2023, the High Court in Auckland ordered that the company [Mico] be put into liquidation’’, Lawrence’s report says.
Included in a list of 27 creditors were ACC, the Otago Regional Council, the Queenstown Lakes District Council, and the Inland Revenue Department (IRD).
Lawrence estimated the liquidation would be completed within the next 12 months.
Meanwhile, Simon Dalton was appointed liquidator of both Gorge H Development and East Link, with both companies put into liquidation on August 3, 2023.
In his reports for each company, both dated September 6, Dalton said it was not practical to estimate the date of completion of each liquidation.
Dalton’s report for East Link showed of the five creditors listed, it was so far only known that $59,756 was owed to unsecured creditors.
Creditors included Buchan Group NZ, IRD and the Auckland Council.
Meanwhile, Dalton’s report for Gorge Development showed of the seven creditors listed, it was so far only known that $238,901 was owed to unsecured creditors.
Creditors included Buchan Group NZ, IRD, Queenstown Lakes District Council and Trade Me.
This week Gapes told The Timaru Herald the liquidations related to three inactive companies that were subject to “a long-standing dispute with one of our architects, and the numbers reported were very misleading”.
“These are completely unrelated to The Showgrounds development or any of our other current developments,” Gapes said.
He said work was continuing at The Showgrounds with the construction of ‘building 1’, a double storey complex at the site, which would be anchored by a national gym chain.
“We are making good progress with our tenants for stage 2 which we hope to start early next year.’’
The nationwide Lone Star franchise was confirmed as a new tenant in the 34,000 square metre development in March 2022.
Gapes said Lone Star was still looking for a suitable franchisee, but the construction of the building would begin soon, and was dependent on final building consents.
As part of the development, work needs to be undertaken by the developer on the Taitarakihi Creek box culvert.
“Apart from any repair work that may be necessary we are not required to do any further works to the highway until we build stage two,” Gapes said.
“At that time we will do the culverts and put in an extra slip lane that will lead directly into The Showgrounds centre.”
Plans for the 1371sqm² Eversley St site, off State Highway 1, show 12 40sqm² units, 14 60sqm² units and 10 70sqm² units, with work to be completed by the end of 2024.
On Monday, Gapes said interest has been strong.
“Clearly there is a demand for this type of facility in Timaru.”
He said now The Showgrounds had been opened for six months and trade had “normalised” it was good to see it had not had a negative impact on the CBD.
“In fact it looks as though the CBD is improving with new tenants moving into the area.’’