Some of the city's waterfront is leasehold land. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Some of the city's waterfront is leasehold land. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Multimillion-dollar ground rents beneath 20 out of 22 properties near Auckland's waterfront are settled but an agreement is yet to be reached on two big apartment blocks.
Andrew Crocker, chief executive of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Whai Rawa, said seven-yearly leasehold land negotiations for most of the Te Tōangaroa (Quay Park)land had been struck but two more were left to go.
"Ground rent reviews for all sites in Te Tōangaroa (Quay Park) occur every seven years, with this cycle of reviews almost complete. Twenty of our 22 reviews have been resolved with only the Scene One and Two properties yet to be resolved," Crocker said.
Negotiations were ongoing for new ground rents beneath the 16-level Scene One and Scene Two apartments between Beach Rd and Quay St.
But negotiations had concluded and settled for Scene Three.
"The ground rental for Scene One and Scene Two sites is yet to be determined. The parties are in arbitration, and arbitration proceedings are subject to statutory confidentiality restrictions," he said.
"Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Whai Rawa is pleased that negotiations with the lessee of Scene Three has just recently resulted in a resolution that is satisfactory to both parties," Crocker said.
"We want to be very clear about our role as owners of the land in Te Tōangaroa (Quay Park). Our arrangement is with the lessee for the land only. Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Whai Rawa does not own the apartment buildings at Scene One, Two and Three, nor does it have a direct relationship with the individual apartment owners," Crocker said.
"Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Whai Rawa has no involvement in the downstream sub-leasing arrangements between the lessee and the apartment owners, which determine the payment terms and final rental payable to the lessee by apartment owners," Crocker said.
Each apartment owner pays thousands of dollars a year in leasehold land rents. Crocker refused to specify the amounts involved.
The 22 properties include the Countdown supermarket on Quay St, Spark Arena, hotel and apartment buildings, offices and medical centres, Parnell Terraces, buildings on Cotesmore Way, Dovedale Place, Sudbury Terrace, shops, high-rise The Mirage apartments at 86-88 The Strand off Quay St and commercial tenants GE and the BNZ are on the iwi whenua.
In 1996, the iwi bought around 20ha of land for $44m. Accounts declared investment properties to be worth $1.09b in its 2019 financial year, up from $1.06b previously. Total assets grew by 5.5 per cent or $65m in a year.
External debt is only $225m, up from $200m in 2008, showing a fiscally conservative balance sheet.
"Revenue is made up of a number of items, the most significant being property rental ($42.4m) and retirement village income ($4.6m). The significant increase in revenue has been driven by increases in property rental resulting from the Quay Park rent review process," the 2019 annual report said.
"This revenue increase has led to a significant increase in total operating profit before tax and revaluations. This is a good result and demonstrates an improvement in the underlying performance of the group," it said.
The Scene apartments between Beach Rd and Quay St. Photo / Martin Sykes
The same entity owns many Kupe St residential properties in Orakei as well as Parnell properties.
Multi-unit residential properties at Belmont and Bayswater on the North Shore are also being developed in a scheme headed by Neil Donnelly.
In June, it was reported that Scene One would cost $35m fix, court documents show, and action is planned against the Auckland Council to recover that amount.
But owners of that 16-level, 134-unit block lost an appeal against sharing the bill to pay for repair investigations and fixing the high-rise.
Justice Pheroze Jagose in the High Court at Auckland rejected an appeal from owners Ian Gibson, Diana Petrie, Paul Merkel, Stephen Rogers, Christopher George Boyce and WR Trustees of the Scene One owners' committee in a case against Paul Doole's Kupe Trustees and Kupe Trustee Company No 2 over leak repair investigations and costs.
Scene One at 2 Beach Rd was one of three blocks built around 2003 on Ngāti Whātua whenua.
