KEY POINTS:
An unrelenting procession of developers has played a part in leaving the huge area on the northern edge of Auckland as it is today - unfinished, dusty, bare, without a soul, unloved and largely undeveloped.
Albany has been the victim of a relentless game of pass-the-parcel, swapped from
one landowner or developer to another over many years. And yet again the land earmarked for intensification is to be sold.
The site seems almost ill-fated. Other city fringe areas like Botany Downs have forged ahead fast, leaving Albany for dead.
Shops and houses have sprung up in less than a decade at Botany in the southeast - although some people would say it went too fast, leaving a legacy of rotting houses, including the Sacramento development.
But over more than three decades, Albany's landowners have dithered, oscillating from one grand vision to another for an area which seems blighted by confusion.
This gem of undeveloped land sits on the edge of a city starved of land and is crucial to Auckland's growth.
In the 1970s, the farmland was earmarked for state housing. Instead, the Government sold it to Neil Group which, since 1993, has been controlled by Malaysia's powerful and extremely wealthy Tiong family.
But Neil, a developer renowned for a patient style of work, developed only part of its Albany holdings.
Land for the Mega Centre, where The Warehouse stands, passed into the hands of a syndicator, Waltus, although that deal turned sour and is yet to be settled. Years after Waltus morphed into Stock Exchange-listed Urbus, which was taken over by ING, Waltus investors are fighting over the amount they were paid for selling, and two High Court hearings have been held.
A block near the Mega Centre was also sold and it is where Australian mall owner Westfield is building what is says will be the country's largest new shopping centre.
Neil slowly undertook development around the edges of the Albany basin, mainly commercial buildings. It built some of the substantial office blocks which ring Albany's bare centre, including the flashy glass Corinthian Office Park, the HSBC, The Professional Centre and the ANZ Business Centre.
The Neil Group was started in the early 1950s by West Auckland house builder Ron Neil. Even under foreign control the company was renowned for its risk-averse style, low debt levels and a sedate pace.
Then in early 2005, along came a Texan-style New Zealander, developer Rick Martin of Cornerstone Group, offering a price so steep that the conservative land-banker could hardly refuse.
Martin paid $250 million for the 49ha of undeveloped land at Albany's heart. In one of the more audacious real-estate deals this decade, the Red Beach resident borrowed the entire amount, structuring his finance with banking newcomer BOS International, owned by the merged entities Halifax and Bank of Scotland.
Where Neil is sedate and placid, Martin is flash, brash, talkative and very large, with a set of piercing brown eyes.
The 48-year-old, who this week declared his hand for Rodney's mayoralty, admits he's a bit over-the-top: "I should buy a Cadillac and put a set of horns on the front," he jokes of the Texan reference.
But when discussion turns to Albany, Martin gets serious.
"What's not to like at Albany? There's nothing there," Martin says of the area that's still largely bare.
He says people should not criticise it for looking bad today but instead focus on what it will become in the next decade. He offered developers a leasehold interest in the land - a deal criticised by many as "inter-generational theft", depriving buyers of the most inherently valuable part of real estate: the very land on which buildings stand.
For Martin, the leasehold deal was what allowed him to pay so much for the land. He knew he could soon squeeze money from the deal with leasehold payments, without having to take any risks in developing the blocks.
Former Chase Corp head Colin Reynolds and executives from Wellington financiers St Laurence bought the leasehold interest from Martin, drawn to the area by plans for a highrise city.
Last November, they produced a $500 million plan that included apartment towers up to 30 levels and underground carparking.
Albany City Holdings, a venture between Reynolds' Symphony Group and Mike O'Sullivan and Kevin Podmore, directors of financier St Laurence in Wellington, is the vehicle they are using.
But even before these towers rise, Martin is out. He is selling, putting his 49ha up for international tender with CB Richard Ellis.
Now that plans for the intensive city centre are out, Martin knows the land is worth much more than two years ago. He could get $300 million. "Or more," he says.
The pass-the-parcel game with Albany continues apace.
