Multi-millionaire’s unusual deal with investor swaps mall for luxury home
Wednesday, 11 February 2026
In a highly unusual property deal, a multi-millionaire Australian entrepreneur has bought a Christchurch shopping mall while selling the previous owner a luxury Queenstown property.
Skorpio Investments Ltd, a company owned by Karl Jameson, has bought The Colombo Mall in the suburb of Sydenham from Christchurch property investor and developer Lilly Cooper.
Jameson has widespread business and property interests in Australia, New Zealand and the United States, ranging from construction and real estate to AI and coffee.
He is understood to have upgrade plans for the mall.
Last year Jameson also completed the off-market purchase of Chantecler, a 19-hectare estate on Lower Shotover Rd in Queenstown, for a New Zealand record price of $45.5 million.
He has since subdivided the estate. He onsold the estate’s homestead and gardens on 3.7ha to Cooper, another 6ha to housing developer Simplicity Living for $38.4m, and has retained a piece for himself.
Jameson also owns a Queenstown house called Stelvio worth about $35m, as well as a home in Auckland.
In Australia, he has interests in apartment construction and real estate development with a focus on shopping mall investments.
He is the director of Christchurch-based company Herd-i, which uses AI to detect problems in cattle. Another of his businesses, Coffeesup, is a subscription-based coffee provider which he founded in 2021 and has expanded into the United States under the name Abbortsford Road.
The piece of Chantecler sold to Cooper contains a large French-style homestead and an award-winning garden recognized by the New Zealand Gardens Trust as a garden of national significance.
Cooper told The Press she is moving from Christchurch to the property, and has been keen for some time to live in Queenstown.
At the same time, Jameson was the right buyer for the mall, she said.
“I feel I had done everything I could there. I needed to sell it and move on.
“Karl looked at it for a reason and wants to do something really good with it. He has done so many things and he will be good for Christchurch.“
Cooper is also the developer behind the Rolleston Fields retail, hospitality and medical development in Rolleston.
Jameson said he intends to build on Cooper’s repositioning work and further enhance The Colombo.
Cooper had rebranded the boutique mall after buying it for $12 million in 2010 as Spotlight Plaza from the receivers for developer Dave Henderson's companies. It has about 30 tenants, including fashion and gift stores, cafes and food outlets, a gym, a cinema, and the South Christchurch Library.
The price paid by Skorpio Investments has not yet been made public, but the property has a rating valuation of close to $32 million.
The Colombo was once known as Sydenham Mall and had anchor tenants including a Farmers department store and Countdown supermarket, and later a Spotlight craft and homewares store.
Dave Henderson renovated the mall and rebuilt part of it, but struggled to find enough tenants.
After Cooper took over, she refocused it around upmarket fashion and food, did earthquake strengthening work, and bought extra land for carparking. Her daughter Caroline Cooper-Dixon managed the mall.
Anchor tenant Smiths City closed its store after the company went into liquidation last year. Its space has since been filled by retailer i-Furniture.
Cooper first put The Colombo up for sale in 2019. She is now focussing on completing the four-stage Rolleston Fields.