Auckland Trotting Club members have voted to sell two of the club’s remaining real estate assets in a move that should finally dig the troubled club out of a once $120 million debt and save harness racing in the city.
More than 100 members attended a meeting at Alexandra Parkon Wednesday evening and voted almost unanimously to approve three proposals to rid the club of the debt that once skyrocketed to $120m.
The debt came about after a disastrous failed build of their first residential/commercial building at Alexandra Park that eventually saw them take legal action against original developer Canam.
They won an $83m judgment in that case, but Canam was placed into voluntary liquidation soon after leaving the ATC with no money from the judgement and a debt that threatened to end harness racing in the Auckland region.
The sale of another package of land at Alexandra Park reduced the debt to $82m as of yesterday and the majority of that could disappear after the members voted to accept a $70m offer from the Franklin Park training facility on the fringe of Pukekohe.
The Franklin Park racetrack and training centre. Photo / Supplied
The offer comes from New Zealand-based company Oyster Capital, who specialise in pre-development and development of both residential and commercial property.
Oyster Capital has been granted a four-month due diligence period and if they go ahead with the purchase a $7m deposit will be due in November, with $28.8m payable in October next year and the remaining $34.2m to be paid in April 2027.
By then the remaining $12m owed by the ATC, with interest added, will be around $20m.
They own 14 commercial units on the lower floors of the three developments at Alexandra Park and forecast that sales of those units could clear all remaining debts.
ATC members also voted on Wednesday night to extend the lease of the Auckland Blues, who are based at Alexandra Park, with the potential for them to extend their current training facility.
If the Franklin Park deal and potential sales of the commercial units go through it will end one of the darkest chapters in New Zealand racing history, with the entire harness racing industry coming unfathomably close to being destroyed in our biggest city.
“We are grateful that the members saw we are better off being the masters of our own destiny than letting our debts control our future,” said ATC president Jamie MacKinnon.
The ATC are believed to be in early negotiations on property for a new training facility for the trainers at Franklin Park and those future northern trainers who will not be able to afford to buy or rent their own properties.
Exactly how the ATC and harness racing industry will fund that new training centre, which could be a $20m project, has yet to be finalised.
But there are at least options ranging from applying to TAB NZ for assistance after they recently received a $100m payout from Entain after the signing of the gambling legislative net bill or even government assistance from sources like the Regional Development Fund.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
