The brother of a former prime minister and a high-profile developer are locked in a fierce High Court battle over prime Queenstown land.
The stoush between businessman Conor English (brother of former prime minister Sir Bill English) and developer Wayne Foley centres on the stretch of land at Ladies Mile that was earmarked for the controversial Laurel Hills Special Housing Area.
That development never got off the ground after being voted down by Queenstown councillors.
Laurel Hills Limited, of which Mr Foley is a director and shareholder, purchased the land last year.
Mr English, a former Federated Farmers chief executive, is currently the chairman of Agribusiness New Zealand.
The pair are battling over whether Mr Foley submitted a tender for the land on behalf of both himself and Mr English, or Mr English alone.
High Court documents also show how tension arose when a third party and the connection between the pair, Marc Holtzman, backed out of the project.
Associate Judge Dale Lester declined Mr Foley's application for a summary judgement on the issue.
According to the court documents, prior to mid-April last year, Mr Foley and Mr English didn't know each other.
But they did both know Mr Holtzman, a businessman who lived in Hong Kong.
Mr Foley's construction company built Mr Holtzman's new Queenstown house, and had helped him with a property acquisition.
Meanwhile, Mr English had known Mr Holtzman for "a number of years". He said he was looking for property development opportunities in Queenstown and was looking for potential investors to partner with.
On April 15 last year, Mr English and Mr Holtzman had lunch in Arrowtown, where they discussed potentially working together on a property development and Mr English's desire to relocate his family from Wellington to the Queenstown area.
The next day, Mr English learned about the Ladies Mile property, which was made up of two blocks totalling about 10ha.
He then brought the property to Holtzman's attention at a meeting, where Mr English said the pair decided to put in a conditional tender for $5million with a due diligence period.
On April 17, Mr Holtzman emailed the marketing materials for the site to Mr Foley, asking if it looked of any interest from a development point of view.
Mr Holtzman told Mr English he was about to travel overseas, and as he did not know much about the local market, he wanted to get his builder involved to get "a locally based second opinion of the project".
Mr English claimed Mr Holtzman "never asked me for Wayne to be a principal or an investor; rather he wanted his experienced professional advice".
The original tender date was April 20. That was extended to April 26.
In his evidence Mr English said if not for the extension, he would have submitted a tender on behalf of himself and Mr Holtzman by the original date.
Mr Foley ended up submitting the tender, as Mr English was in New York.
He said he viewed Mr Foley's role as a friend and sounding board for Mr Holtzman.
However, Mr Foley claimed Mr Holtzman assured him he was "not interested in pursuing any property deal with Mr English unless it was something that would fit within the relationship between Mr Foley and Mr Holtzman ...".
Mr Foley said he understood Mr English would only be involved in the project if Mr Holtzman was as well, as Mr Holtzman was the source of the funding.
On May 2, Mr Foley emailed Mr Holtzman and Mr English to say the vendors had accepted the conditional bid for the property.
"We will need to discuss on what basis we are moving forward from here and also the scope and costs of the due diligence investigations," he told them.
But by May 12, Mr Holtzman told Mr Foley he was "not comfortable with the uncertainty around the planning process", and didn't want to continue with the deal.
Mr Foley said he had never met Mr English, had never had business dealings with him and "really knew nothing about him".
"The only basis on which I would have contemplated him becoming involved in the property was with Marc."
Mr Foley said an email from Mr English on May 28 suggested either Mr Holtzman hadn't told Mr English he was pulling out, or Mr English was ignoring that.
The pair spoke on the phone that day, and Mr Foley outlined that Mr Holtzman had backed out, and Mr English's involvement in the project "was at an end".
Mr English said he had another interested party he could bring in, but Mr Foley said he was "not interested in being involved in a venture with people he had never met and did not know ...".
In a statement of claim dated October 18, Mr English alleged he and Mr Holtzman engaged Mr Foley to submit a tender on their behalf, or as a joint venture.
Mr Foley then applied for a summary judgement, which was declined. Judge Lester said it appeared Mr Foley had no interest in the project before being contacted by Mr Holtzman, and his communications with the pair suggested Mr Foley viewed himself as "securing the option for the benefit of himself and others".
"In my view, there was arguably a common objective between all three men involved to secure the tender," he added.
Mr Foley declined to comment, citing ongoing court proceedings. Mr English could not be reached for comment.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
Laurel Hills Limited has applied for resource consent to create 26 residential lots and two balance lots on the site once destined for the Laurel Hills housing development.
Laurel Hills has four directors: Wayne Foley, Tim Allan, Shekhar Balasubramaniam and Fraser Mackenzie.
Foley referred questions about the development to Mr Allan, who says they’re waiting to see what the Queenstown Lakes District Council decides, in terms of the future of Ladies Mile.
"It’s a holding position for us. We’d rather do a proper, comprehensive development, but we’re going to have to see what the council has to say, how they’re going
to get on with that."
Access to the subdivision will be off Stalker Rd. A new 15m-wide road is proposed through the development, ending with a cul-de-sac.
