New boat stack refloated

By Graham Skellern
A half-built boat stack that lay idle at Tauranga's Sulphur Point for more than a year is being brought back to life by a leading Irish developer.
Aidan Harrison's Channor NZ has bought the 1.8ha Cross Rd site formerly owned by Pachoud Tauranga Trust and is continuing the $20 million Fort Nautilus boatstack and apartments development.
The drystack, storing up to 200 5-12m boats on five levels, is expected to be operating within two months and the 12 apartments over four storeys are due to be completed by September.
The development, which includes dredging an 80m long, 6m deep canal for boat access to the harbour, ground to a halt last April when the trading company Pachoud Motor Yachts went in to liquidation, owing nearly $7m.
The steel framing of the boatstack had been erected and the southern wall next to the railway line has now been built. Half the steel framing for the apartment complex is also standing and the remainder will be in place within two weeks.
"We've got it up and rolling and everything is going smoothly," said project spokesman John Keogh. "We are keen to make it work and we will go right through to completion.
"It's something different for Aidan ... a boating theme and apartments instead of the commercial buildings he does in Dublin. All his financing is coming from Ireland," he said.
Mr Keogh, who lives in Wellington, told his cousin about the proposed development, and Mr Harrison visited Tauranga last May to take a look. Two months later he bought the prime waterfront site from Crossroads Developments who had secured it from the liquidator.
For the past 10 years, Mr Harrison has developed the Blanchardstown Corporate Park next to the Dublin ring road.
His company, Channor Limited, has attracted 50 companies from Ireland, England, central Europe and North America including eBay and the upmarket business park includes a creche, 200-seat restaurant, mini-supermarket and a privately-owned staff bus service.
Mr Harrison has bought three jetboats in New Zealand, joined the national jet boating association and is building a sprinting course in Ireland.
Dave Pachoud, who moved his boatbuilding business from Rotorua to Tauranga in 2001, had a plan to establish a wide ranging Marine Park at Sulphur Point. Mr Harrison is re-living that dream.
The boatstack, 72m long and 44m wide, has a full valet service - the boaties will simply stroll to the dockside and hop in.
Their boats will have been taken from the storage racks and placed on the water by a forklift. The staff will have also serviced them and when the boaties return from their day's fishing and cruising the staff are back in action washing the hulls, flushing the engines and storing the boats.
Nearly 80 people had paid a deposit for a berth in the boatstack and they have the option of staying on or getting their money back. The lease for an average 6m berth has risen from $4000 to $5500 a year.
The apartments facing the water are between 200-250 sq m in size and the price for the four biggest will be more than $2 million. The apartments, which have a common lap pool, spa, sauna and gym, will not be sold until they are completed.
Another building on the site is fully leased by 12 tenants including a cafe.
Mr Pachoud employed up to 120 people to build his luxury motor yachts but the staff had dwindled to 15 when his company crashed last year.
The staff have since been paid 49c in the dollar for holiday pay and wages owing - and that was the only payout to 120 creditors. The liquidator recovered only $80,000 from selling plant and equipment.
Athol Ryan, the agent for the liquidator, said Pachould Motor Yachts had trading losses totalling $4.1m in the two years before it went under.
He said there were no dividends for the unsecured creditors who were owed more than $1m but the biggest losers were the shareholders who pumped in $5.3m.