The Ted Manson Foundation is building three big housing projects in Auckland. / Jason Oxenham
Ted Manson once believed life was fair, everyone could succeed and most people should be able to buy their own house.
But in the past five years, he changed his mind.
The head of property company Mansons TCLM, and founder of the four-year-old philanthropic Ted Manson Foundation, spent his early years in an Auckland state house and his father, Colin, was 28 before he could afford his first car.
Ted Manson on the Glen Eden site. Photo/Jason Oxenham
Life was a struggle, as Manson clearly remembers. But at 63, he is also pleased with the way his life worked out.
With his father and now his sons, he expanded what is arguably the country's wealthiest private property development and investment business, and built his own wealth to the point where his 60th birthday party featured Lorde performing, alongside Hayley Westenra and Rhys Darby as MC.
Manson describes a type of epiphany which prompted him to take an entirely new direction.
"I used to think 'if I can come up from a state house, anyone can' but as you get older, you start to realise life is not fair. Not everyone can do it," he says as he drives from the Auckland CBD to the foundation's newest project.
It is building $160 million of Auckland social housing: a 10- and 11-level Glen Eden project; an 18-level central city tower; an Avondale block is earmarked for a $60m venture; and he has his eye on New Lynn and Papatoetoe.
"I woke up one day and I got a social conscience. That happens at some stage of your life for some, but not for all," says Manson. "Up until then, I was a capitalist.
"The foundation's goal is to build and provide more than 300 apartments for social housing by 2022 to help those who are struggling, so they're able to take the next step in life for a better future.
Blocks of 10 and 11 levels will rise on this site. Photo/Jason Oxenham
"Many people are enduring tough times and are under constant pressure and constraint because of hardship or misfortune. But robust, safe, warm, healthy homes which ensure security of tenure would give them the stability to contribute positively to their community and improve their quality of life."
Instead of building a few stand-alone homes on single sites, Manson is going far further than anyone has dared.
He decided to apply his high-rise expertise to help alleviate the plight of the poor and build on a grand scale.
Using all his sector connections and a lifetime's experience in making projects work, he decided to be ambitious.
From what he sees in Auckland, he can't afford to muck around. So he is fast-tracking development, with the audacious goal of finishing on two sites by mid-2019.
CMP Construction is building on the Glen Eden site. Photo/Jason Oxenham
But he has resources to call on. Mansons TCLM staff are in on the project. For example, the most senior and experienced non-family member at Parnell-headquartered Mansons is construction manager Gary Young, one of this country's most skilled high-rise construction experts, who is on the foundation board and often at its sites.
On the day the Herald visited in mid-February, Young was with a group of construction chiefs meeting at Glen Eden, including CMP Construction founder and managing director Ron Macrae, whose business has the main contract. Young is in weekly project control group meetings to keep the programme on time and on budget.
I got a $58m quote to built it. It will owe me $65m-plus when it's finished, not including the cost of money and my staff's time
Samantha Colgin, daughter of former Auckland mayor Len Brown, is the foundation's manager of social housing projects, working full-time on all three projects, looking at design with the architects, getting resource and building consents and attending every group meeting.
