Ponsonby's Soho Square back on the market

Soho Square, Ponsonby. Photo Herald on Sunday

Ponsonby's failed Soho Square development is back on the market.

Receiver Grant Thornton announced today that the landmark Ponsonby site would be offered to the market in a campaign headed Ray White's Bruce Whillans.

Soho Square developer Layne Kells' company Ponsonby Mall Trust went into receivership at the end of 2009, owing the funders Fortress $24 million and Strategic $50 million.

For more than a year, Whillans has been searching for a buyer and supermarket, retirement and healthcare businesses were thought to be interested, though no-one ever emerged.

Grant Thorton's Tim Downes said that the receivers' focus on the property since appointment had been on adding value via improving the permissible development on the site.

This was achieved in March this year when resource consent was granted for a mixed use development of 45,348sqm on the site, versus the previous consent of 32,286sqm when the site was offered to the market in early 2010.

Downes said this had created a significant building envelope which could now be fine-tuned by the ultimate developer of the site.

Renewed interest in the site from a number of developers had encouraged the receivers to launch another marketing campaign, with a specifically selected list of potential purchasers, he seaid.

"Letters seeking offers from these particular parties have been sent out in the last day or so."

- Susie Nordqvist and Anne Gibson