KEY POINTS:
Listed finance company Dorchester Pacific is selling its own high-rise Auckland office headquarters in a move which could net it $30 million.
Real estate agent CB Richard Ellis has called for tenders to be submitted on the Dorchester Tower - being marketed as the Auckland Club Tower -
by October 11.
Andrew Walker, Dorchester's managing director, said the company might also quit the Westward Ho apartment project site, a deal funded by Rod Petricevic's Bridgecorp in West Auckland's Kelson.
Also on the block was Dorchester's interest in the landmark agricultural property Flock House near Bulls, Walker said.
The three properties were not part of Dorchester's core business but a hangover from the time when Brent King was running the company and when he was closely alligned with Rod Petricevic's failed Bridgecorp, he said.
"In the last 12 months, I've been trying to clean up all the unusual stuff which was on the balance sheet," Walker said.
Dorchester was not selling the properties because it needed cash: "These properties sit on the balance sheet but are not exactly part of our core business."
Dorchester associate Dorchester Property Trust owns the Auckland tower which has Dorchester's name atop the 17-level block, even though the club has naming rights. Dorchester also occupies levels nine and 17 of the tower, leasing other floors to a mixture of tenants.
But the sales process has an unusual twist. Parties keen toknow more about the building are being directed to the website, www.aucklandclubtower.co.nzwith a secret password and login.
Gail Baillie, CBRE's marketing manager, said this method of marketing was chosen so the agency could keep a closer eye on who was interested.
"It's basically a way of qualifying the inquirers and being able tomonitor the level of interest," shesaid.
Dorchester, under fire from former managing director King, who says he has lost confidence in the company, is selling the tower because it says it does not need it.
Cyrus Richardson, Dorchester's marketing and investor relations manager, said a decision had been taken to quit the 17-level tower because it was not regarded as crucial to the business.
"We had a strategic review and said, 'Hey, actually owing property is not what we're in business for'," Richardson said yesterday.
King yesterday criticised the tower's sale, saying he had bought the block from Trans Tasman Properties four years ago when he ran Dorchester.
He had sought to diversify the firm's income stream away from second-tier lending and the tower was a brilliant investment which Dorchester should keep.
He said the tower had brought in at least $8 million for the firm.
PROPERTY PORTFOLIO
* Dorchester Tower, Auckland's CBD
* Flock House agricultural college near Bulls
* Westward Ho, West Auckland residential land.
