Development debts escalate past $100m

Saturday, 26 April 2025

Andrew Bendemski, insert, and the land earmarked for a housing development in the Bowenvale Valley, Christchurch.

Troubled Christchurch property developer Andrew Bendemski’s companies now owe creditors more than $100 million as his GCO group of businesses continues its collapse.

Bendemski, previously known as Shane Beecham, is a former bankrupt who had projects in Christchurch, Wānaka and Auckland.

He already has three companies in receivership owing a total of $25m. Three others have now been put into liquidation with debts exceeding $84m.

He is the sole director of all six.

The financial picture of Bendemski’s businesses is muddied by a complex series of related-party loans between the various companies in liquidation and receivership.

Reports from liquidator Simon Dalton of Gerry Rea Partners reveal Bendemski’s GCO Group Ltd had debts totalling $3.61m, with 24 creditors. The company is described as operating a management services business.

A second company - S5 GCO Capital Partnership GP Ltd, described as an investment business - owes $4.53m to three creditors.

An artist's impression of the new hotel planned for Peterborough St, Christchurch, which Bendemski planned to develop. The project is now in the hands of another developer.

Both companies were put into liquidation in March by order of the High Court in Christchurch, after an application by business lender BizCap NZ. The companies had failed to respond to a statutory demand from Bizcap for payment of debts.

Creditors in addition to Bizcap are Inland Revenue, and a range of businesses that provide services ranging from legal, planning, architecture and accounting, to electrical, building, plumbing and waste disposal.

A third of Bendemski’s companies, Tennyson GCO Ltd, was put into liquidation by the liquidators and receivers of its shareholding companies on April 10, and also has Dalton as liquidator.

The Stoney Creek housing development site is near the Wanaka waterfront.

Tennyson GCO’s development property in Takapuna, Auckland, carries a first mortgage to WFT Finance and Investment Ltd, and three caveats on the title, totalling $77m. Debts owed to other creditors, which include related-party debts, are yet to be determined.

The property is The Loxley luxury apartment tower, which is is being finished by another developer and is nearing completion. The 47 apartments are for sale at prices from about $1m and up.

Bendemski’s Christchurch projects were an 11-storey hotel on Peterborough St, near Victoria St, now in the hands of developer Possum Ridge Ltd, the Bowenvale Heights subdivision with 35 house and land packages at the end of Bowenvale Ave in Cashmere, and the 5.5-hectare Blue Skies subdivision on Johns Rd in northern Christchurch.

Andrew Bendemski, previously known as Shane Beecham.

In Wānaka, his company was to have developed Stoney Creek, a consented subdivision with 59 luxury townhouses near the town’s waterfront. That development was put up for mortgagee sale by lender Senior Trust Capital but has not sold.

The Bowenvale Valley site is also being offered for sale, by first mortgagee Alpha First Securities. It remains unsold.

The two sites have a joint market value close to $30m.

The Loxley Apartments in Takapuna, Auckland.

Bendemski’s companies in receivership are Blues Skies GCO Ltd with debts of $18.1m, Bowenvale GCO Ltd owing $5.6m, and consultancy company S5 Consulting Group Ltd owing $1.3m.

He remains sole director of nine other companies, in addition to the six in liquidation and receivership.

Bendemski was bankrupted in May 2016, while still known as Beecham, following problems over unpaid personal bills and personal guarantees relating to his Christchurch-based Brix Group of businesses.

He later began using the name Bendemski. After the bankruptcy was discharged, he began property projects mainly in the North Island, but more recently in the South Island.