By ANNE GIBSON property editor
Fleur Panckhurst used to leave her Whangaparaoa home at 6am to beat the motorway traffic.
She would usually spend at least an hour on the motorway before arriving in the city, justifying the trip with the thought of returning to the beaches and her laid-back lifestyle on the peninsula at the end of the day.
Not any more.
Two years ago, the commute really started to annoy her and she dreamed of life without motorways.
So she moved into the city, swapping her beachside lifestyle for an one-bedroom unit on level seven of the Metro City Apartment block on the corner of Wakefield and Mount streets in the centre of Auckland.
Now the 25-year-old who works in IT and accounting takes a 10-minute stroll to her Albert St offices.
The attractions of her new home include little cleaning, no maintenance, the quiet and the views over Albert Park.
"It's great, it's just so different. I can't even compare the two lifestyles."
The drawbacks have been the nightmare surrounding the financial mess behind the Metro City Apartments, a block dogged by various problems which resulted in a $10.5 million debt and company receivership.
For tenants and owners, that meant less, if any, cleaning was done, few or no staff managing the block and often problems getting basic maintenance done.
"You never knew what was going to happen," said Fleur.
But the sale of the unsold 64 units in the 109-apartment block just before Christmas has changed all that.
Half the 16-level Metro City Apartment block in Wakefield St has been sold to an Auckland investor, Paul Doole, for $4.85 million plus GST in a mortgagee sale which seems likely to put an end to the apartment owners' problems.
Doole is well-known in the apartment business, having developed three other city apartment blocks - the conversion of 105 Anzac Ave from an office building into apartments, the Darlinghurst on Eden Crescent, and the Connaught on Waterloo Quadrant.
The 64 studio and one-bedroom apartments in the Metro high-rise were owned by Metro City Apartments, which went into receivership last July.
Colliers Jardine agents Roger Seavill and John Goddard were the agents on the deal, bring some festive season cheer to receiver David Davidson of PricewaterhouseCoopers with the good news that a buyer had been found.
The Bank of New Zealand is owed $5.2 million on the apartment block, Hartford Group of Auckland is owed $2.6 million and Canterbury Asset Management of Christchurch is owed $3.5 million.
The Christchurch company was associated with the former owner.
The Colliers agents sold 43 one-bedroom apartments of 29sq m and 21 studio apartments of 21sq m.
Dividing the money paid by the number of apartments showed that each unit went for only $75,000, Seavill said, although GST had to be added on which bumped the figure up slightly.
Last July, the units were for sale at between $100,000 and $125,000 each.
The new owner planned to sell some of these 64 apartments and retain others.
An apartment could fetch around $100,000 on a stand-alone sale basis, Seavill predicted.
Colliers marketed the apartments overseas in a tender which closed on November 9.
The advertising told of harbour views, a location close to the central business district and the main part of Auckland University.
The block was built in late 1999 by former Perth businessman Colin Lofts.
Last year, Garry Lawrence announced he had bought 99.5 per cent of the shareholding and said he could sell the 64 apartments left by using travel connections he had.
But this did not happen and the receivers took over when debts escalated to $10.5 million.
Bayleys Real Estate marketed the 109-unit block initially, promising investors a 10 per cent return, guaranteed for two years.
But the guarantee was worthless and investors complained that they were owed money on the apartments.
After taking over, PricewaterhouseCoopers moved swiftly to rent out the apartments and generate some cash.
"The previous management and lease structure put in place by the Gary Lawrence-controlled company, Metro City Management, has been dismantled," David Davidson said in late September.
"Our own live-in managers have been installed and occupancy on a residential tenancy basis is running at around 90 per cent"
But he also noted that interest was continuing to accrue on debts.
Roger Seavill said at the time that the apartments were generating an "impressive income stream" and although the 64 apartments were being sold in one block, a buyer would easily be able to split them off and sell them separately.
More than 20 tenders were made, some from Australia and Singapore.
But none of all this wheeling and dealing worried Fleur Panckhurst too much and she plans to continue living happily above the park in the middle of the city.
Out of a tangled debt web comes happiness on high
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