A Queenstown lakefront property owned by failed company Queenstown Villas (New Zealand), which owes about $22 million to Strategic Nominees, is now the subject of a mortgagee sale.
Described by Locations Realtors as suitable for a five-star hotel or apartment-style development or as "the ultimate trophy" site for a home, the 7825m2 Lake Esplanade site has a rateable value of about $8.5 million.
Locations Real Estate agent Steven Kirk yesterday told the Otago Daily Times the site had about two weeks ago become the subject of a mortgagee sale, with a sale deadline of 4pm on October 4.
At this point, it would "come off the table" with the purchase going to the best offer, Mr Kirk said.
It had, by yesterday, already attracted interest from Australian and New Zealand parties.
The site would come with an existing consent for the construction of up to 36 apartments, and is bounded by Rydges Lakeland Resort Queenstown, Queenstown YHA backpackers and the Esplanade Queenstown Apartments.
Queenstown Villas (New Zealand) Ltd was on December 10, 2008 placed into receivership by PKF Corporate Recovery and Insolvency (Auckland) Limited, primarily over an outstanding loan.
In the receiver's sixth report from PKF insolvency practitioners Anthony McCullagh and Stephen Lawrence, dated August 8 this year, the company still owed about $22 million in secured loans to Strategic, which has also been placed in receivership.
Preferential and unsecured creditors are not expected to be recompensed.
Bridgecorp Finance Limited, which has registered a financing statement against the company, had not lodged a claim by the time the report was made.
Gregory Campbell Oliver Nielsen, of Auckland, and Justin Stanley Russell, of the United Kingdom, are listed as directors.
It is not the first time Mr Russell has been in financial trouble in Queenstown - alongside Mr Nielson and his brother Roderick Nielsen, the three have been involved in other failed Queenstown developments, the biggest of which was the defunct Walter Peak Development.
Roderick Nielsen and Mr Russell were directors in the multimillion-dollar project which aimed to construct a luxury lodge, eight homesteads and eight cottages on 38ha of land which was previously part of Walter Peak Station.
On the date of the receiver's sixth report last month, Walter Peak Development Ltd still owed more than $21 million to creditors, more than $20 million of which was owed to Strategic.
