A $700 million Auckland development of the McEwan Group - which is seeking a joint-venture partner for a separate multimillion-dollar Dunedin Hilton hotel proposal - has been put on hold and some of the land may be sold.
However, McEwan Group director Dan McEwan says the company is still seeking a partner for the proposed Dunedin Hilton and is "in negotiation with several [unnamed] parties".
A planned redevelopment of north Auckland spa town Waiwera is on hold and some of the land is to be sold, The New Zealand Herald has reported.
"Waiwera is not in difficulty. We are doing a confidential 'internal restructure'. That's it. It will have no bearing on Dunedin," Mr McEwan said when contacted yesterday.
A total of 34 apartments have been sold in Dunedin for the Hilton development, but Mr McEwan said he had "other expressions of interests" which could take over existing contracts if investors did not go ahead, or could prompt the release of more apartments on another level of the building.
But the Dunedin hotel and apartment project in the former chief post office in the Exchange, estimated to be worth $85 million when completed, requires a joint-venture partner to proceed.
Last month, primary lender Otago Finance, a division of South Canterbury Finance, confirmed it held a Property Law Act notice over the Dunedin building, which included an option allowing it to take possession and sell the premises to recover its $5 million loan, or bring in another development partner.
South Canterbury Finance managing director Lachie McLeod was contacted yesterday and said up to three options were being considered, with a "game plan" expected to be devised in a month.
Some Dunedin investors are understood to be taking action to have Mr McEwan release financial information under the general security agreement they have as shareholders in the Dunedin development company; an agreement which is registered with the personal properties security register.
However, Mr McEwan rejected claims investors were "taking action" under the general security agreement, saying he had provided financial information to investors.
At Waiwera, the McEwan Group had planned to build a 215-unit hotel in the village and to develop luxury apartments in a 12ha area overlooking it, dubbed Waiwera Heights.
But the developer has found potential buyers for two blocks of the land and the development is "on hold at the moment due to the current economic situation", Mr McEwan told the Herald.
McEwan Group is leading a collection of investors which includes Waiwera Infinity Spa Resort, operator of the town's landmark hot pools.
Small investor Bruce Whistler, of Orewa, said shareholders had been called to a meeting on Saturday to discuss the potential sale.
"I don't know what the whole big financial picture is as far as what we end up with," he said.
"It's been a disaster as far as I'm concerned. I'd be very, very thankful if we just got our money back considering what's happened to a lot of other people."
The Herald understands the land has been on the market for some time and a deal earlier in the year fell through.
Mr McEwan said the proposed sale was "an internal transaction, a bit of a switch around".
"But it's not public because we all have to agree on it. We've got to do a bit of work before effectively there is something happening."
Meanwhile, several McEwan-related companies faced liquidation in the High Court at Auckland yesterday. They included McEwan Group (which has been renamed Ro-Ro Investments) and Crystal Waters, a company which developed luxury apartments in Cable Bay in the Far North.
Some of the investors in Waiwera also put money into Crystal Waters and described that investment as similarly disastrous.
Mr McEwan said the liquidations were old trading companies being wound up.
