A Far North Maori group's hope of averting financial ruin rests with plans to subdivide 10 hectares of tribal land.
Matauri X Corporation has lodged resource consent applications to subdivide up to 188 sections on a block of tribal land overlooking Matauri Bay.
The corporation, which has 430 shareholders, wants to lease
out the sections for 52 years to help pay off a $5.5 million debt incurred when leaders bought into a water bottling venture that failed.
Former bosses of the corporation borrowed the money from Bridgecorp Finance and Instant Finance to invest in Eternal Waters mineral water company. The venture was expected to return up to $18 million over six years but went belly-up with losses of more than $2 million.
The subdivision plan, which involves two stages, is hoped to pay off the debt and give the group long-term financial security.
The plan includes up to 40,000 cubic metres of earthworks, building a community effluent treatment plant to deal with up to 203cu m of sewage, a public road, recreation and open space areas, including walking tracks and a wetland.
The resource consent applications, lodged with the Far North District and Northland Regional Councils, have been publicly notified and submissions close on July 3. If required, a date will then be set to hear the application.
Kevin Gillespie, the Maori Land Court-appointed administrator overseeing the corporation's affairs, said Blue Water Eco Development has already been appointed as the partner to develop the subdivision, if consent was granted.
"(The subdivision) will pay off the debt and put the trust on a secure financial footing," Mr Gillespie said.
The next step for the corporation was to finalise refinancing, get the resource consent granted and then "get on with it". If consent is granted the subdivision could start being marketed in September.
? Labour list MP and former Maori Affairs Minister Dover Samuels is the largest single shareholder of Matauri X.
? The loans were taken out without the knowledge or consent of most of Matauri X's shareholders.
? Former Matauri X chairman Hemi Rua Rapata has accepted responsibility for the failed investment in Eternal Waters.
