New liquidation for developer with $100m-plus in company debts

Wednesday, 8 October 2025

Andrew Bendemski, previously known as Shane Beecham. (File photo)

Another of the GCO group of companies owned by troubled Christchurch property developer Andrew Bendemski has collapsed, further escalating company debts that already exceed $100 million.

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

His company GCO Pharmacuticals Ltd, described as a medical wholesaling business, has now been put into liquidation by liquidators Gerry Rea Partners who are handling his other insolvent companies.

The Loxley Apartments comprise two five-storey buildings in Takapuna, Auckland. Developed by Bendemski’s company, the buildings are now the subject of a High Court battle.

Bendemski now has six companies in liquidation and two in receivership. He is the sole director of all eight.

The first liquidator’s report on GCO Pharmacuticals says there is “no evidence to suggest the company is trading”. The insolvency work is being done without Bendemski’s assistance, the report says.

The liquidation was triggered by related party debts across the GCO group, mostly relating to the group’s property developments.

Bendemski’s Bowenvale Heights housing development.

With the exception of $1.13m owed to secured creditors of GCO Pharmacuticals, the amount of the company’s debts is yet to be determined. It owes money to medical cannabis business Organic Genetics, Inland Revenue, and business lender Bizcap NZ.

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

Most indebted of Bendemski’s other collapsed companies is Tennyson GCO Ltd, which owes an estimated $77.4m to mortgagees.

The site of the Stoney Creek housing development (foreground) in Wānaka.

The company’s completed apartment complex in Takapuna in Auckland, The Loxley, was seized by mortgagee WFT Finance in May and is now for sale.

Debts relating to that property development are the subject of an ongoing case in the High Court in Auckland.

Other Bendemski companies in liquidation are S5 Consulting Group, which was previously in receivership, GCO Group Ltd, and S5 GCO Capital Partnership Ltd.

An artist's impression of the new hotel Bendemski planned for 48 Peterborough St, Christchurch. That project was onsold, and the mortgagee is attempting to sell the land.

Also in liquidation is Merivale GCO Ltd, which owns an investment property in the Christchurch suburb of Northwood.

His two companies in receivership both had subdivision projects in Christchurch.

They are Blue Skies GCO Ltd, which was developing land for residential sections in Johns Rd in northern Christchurch, and Bowenvale GCO which began but did not complete a house and land subdivision Bowenvale Heights in Cashmere. The Bowenvale land was put up for sale by mortgagee Alpha First Securities but remains unsold.

Bendemski remains the sole director of four other companies. They are Cass Bay GCO Ltd, Queenswood GCO Ltd, Barry Point GCO Ltd, and Stoney Creek GCO Ltd, which planned a Wanaka subdivision with 59 luxury townhouses.

Others have ceased trading, including Peterborough GCO Ltd, which planned a hotel development in central Christchurch but sold the project. The land earmarked for that project, at 48 to 52 Peterborough St, is also now the subject of a mortgagee sale.

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.