John Sax, seen at the Kensington Park development, says housing demand will grow. Photo / Dean Purcell
John Sax, seen at the Kensington Park development, says housing demand will grow. Photo / Dean Purcell
Wealthy Auckland developer and philanthropist John Sax is winding up a company he founded 40 years ago which owes $23.7 million to related parties by liquidating it as a solvent entity because it’s been inactive for more than a year.
The Companies Office has posted an initial Baker Tilly StaplesRodway Auckland report on South Park Developments, which owes $23.7m in related-party debt to two other businesses Sax owns.
South Park, founded in the early 1980s, was put into liquidation last week but not at the behest of banks or creditors, as is often the way in such cases. Instead, its sole shareholder - Sax of Epsom - took the move because the business is no longer active.
Baker Tilly’s Jared Booth and Tony Maginness said the company had no known third-party creditors and the only reason it had been put into liquidation was for restructuring purposes.
The company specialised in commercial land development and owes $23.7m to Sax’s Autumn Park and Kearoa Holdings, both of the same address where South Park Developments is headquartered.
“The creditors listed are related parties. The company has no known third-party creditors,” the initial report said.
Nilesh Naidu, finance director of Sax’s Southpark Corporation, said today the company being liquidated no longer served any purpose. It had been dormant for many years.
It was headquartered in Penrose but had ceased trading last June. Directors are founder David John Sax, James Julian Sax and Arthur William Young, but John Sax owns the business, which was incorporated in 1983.
South Park projects included the development of Orewa’s Kensington Park, originally started by Patrick Fontein.
The great hall at Treetops Lodge, Rotorua.
Sax is an industrial developer who has specialised in the Mt Wellington, Penrose and Onehunga areas.
He has run many companies and owned extensive industrial real estate, with properties in Newmarket and Manukau.
Sax lives in Epsom’s Florence Court and created Rotorua’s award-winning Treetops Lodge and Estate, a grand country house which draws international tourists.
He also founded For the Sake of Our Children Trust with Christine Rankin to try to change social policy in this country. He has specialised in developing brownfield sites such as Southdown and Pikes Point.
Sax’s Southpark Group said it started business more than 35 years ago and has a significant history in property acquisition, land development, design, build and leaseback and, more recently, residential development.
It has a track record of activities ranging from complex brownfield to greenfield sites, working on more than 60 projects.
“The origins of the business trace back decades to the acquisition of large tracks of industrial land close to major transport corridors and the subsequent development of these sites into their highest and best use. This strategic plan has resulted in the development of a large portfolio of outstanding industrial properties in highly sought-after locations across Auckland and Christchurch,” Southpark says.
The group includes a utility company supplying water and power, development at Te Arai, Treetops Lodge and Estate in Rotorua and Kensington Park, it says. Kinloch Manor and Villas - with a Jack Nicklaus-designed signature golf course - is also cited by the business.
John Sax’s son James is listed as Southpark’s development manager, a director and the project manager for the Te Arai estate development work. James Sax said today Southpark had undertaken a 21-lot subdivision near the beach at Te Arai recently.
John Sax says he is “a promoter and champion of caring communities, and in particular has a strong desire to make New Zealand a better place for all children. He has spent many years involved in child and youth development, particularly in the lower socio-economic areas”.
In 2011, the Herald reported Sax buying the troubled Kinloch golf course west of Taupō to develop a new tourist lodge and a luxury housing estate.
That was just two years after he bought Orewa’s partially developed $500m Kensington Park from Fontein’s Kensington Properties.
The golf course had a difficult history after ex-finance business Hanover loaned $24m on Kinloch and then Allied Farmers, which bought the Hanover and United loan books, ran into difficulties recovering money from many assets.
Sax, executive director of Southpark Corporation, said in 2011 he bought the land and golf course from the Van Den Brink poultry farming family, who loaned money on it ahead of Hanover.
The Charities Register records David John Sax as an officer of the New Zealander Leaders’ Trust Board and the now-deregistered Foundation for Social Responsibility in New Zealand.
Sax is also an officer of Market Cove Community Trust and For the Sake of Our Children Trust, the register records.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
