Disappointment after project canned

This housing development on Maunganui Rd will not go ahead after the developer was unable to go unconditional before the contract expired.

A highly affordable townhouse development planned for Maunganui Rd featuring 26 loft-style townhouses has fallen through.

Neville Rusk of Professionals NRG, the company marketing Shed 33, said they had contracts on all the properties and it was sad when they had to tell everyone last week that their contracts were at an end.

"We are disappointed for the purchasers."

The Bay of Plenty Times Weekend understands the new developer plans to build 30 apartments on the site near Blake Park, but at higher prices than the $300,000 for 22 of the 26 lofts offered in the former deal.

Mr Rusk said the former developer had a contract to purchase the land but was unable to go unconditional before the contract expired.

The clients' deposits were in a trust account and would be refunded.

The original developer had been aiming at first-home buyers when launching the project earlier this year.

The townhouses were to have been built in a loft style, designed to maximise the space with a 4m stud height in the living area.

David Hamilton of the original development company Celt Saxon Corp was unwilling to go into detail about what had happened, saying it was still a bit raw and upsetting.

He said they had an unconditional contract to buy the property but their finances had fallen over.

They had been negotiating with another party to take over the project when he found out last Tuesday that this party had gone directly to the landowner with another offer and was now doing their own feasibility study.

"The guy may go ahead with a similar style of development but I don't know."

Mr Hamilton said they had been overwhelmed with interest from potential purchasers when the development was announced, although it did not always translate into a sale.

There were a lot of constraints and it had reached the stage where they were in negotiations with all the parties, including the new purchaser, to make it happen.

"We are bitterly disappointed we did not make it happen," he said, adding that it had been taken out of their hands to some degree.

"We did what we could to make it happen ... now it is someone else's turn," Mr Hamilton said.