A billionaire who plans to build the country’s tallest tower building in Auckland’s CBD has been granted a last-minute eight-year extension after blaming the city rail link and Covid for protracted delays.
Shanghai business magnate Furu Ding owns a chain of high-end hotels in China and Singapore and has considerable land holdings and commercial interests in New Zealand.
He bought a massive 4417sq m vacant site at 106 Albert St for $53 million in 2012. In 2017 the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) granted Ding consent to build a $350m five-star Ritz Carlton hotel and 52-storey tower on the site.
With the project yet to begin, a resource consent for the development issued by Auckland Council was due to expire in October last year.
However, Ding’s planners applied for an eight-year extension just days before the consent was due to lapse, which was signed off by the council late last year and is valid until October 2029.
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The application, obtained by the Herald, says the development will feature a 300-room hotel, retail centre, food court and cinema complex.
“The design of the development will transform what is currently a parking lot, into a landmark tower hotel building which will significantly improve the public realm,” Beca planner Michael Guy wrote.
While Ding remained committed to the project, it had faced setbacks due to CRL construction delays and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, Guy wrote.
“The delays and challenges were underestimated.
“Construction has not yet started. This is largely attributed to the intensity of construction activities surrounding the site associated with the CRL and the need to resolve integration issues with CRL before seeking the construction consents.
“As a result, the consent owner has delayed the start of the development until the CRL construction works near the site are near completion (understood to be late 2023).”
The application notes that the site has been vacant for about three decades and “presents an eye-sore on a prominent central city site”.
“Its development will have a positive effect on the public realm and the wider community. A decision not to extend the consent will potentially delay its re-development even longer.”
Uncertainty around CRL’s final design and timeframes, and the impact on safe access to the Albert St site, had hampered investment in design and investigations for the tower development, Guy wrote.
“This is a unique situation and special circumstance which makes developing the site concurrently, complex and disruptive.
“The process is further complicated by the pandemic and constraints it has created in the construction industry for large projects such as this.”
In the meantime, the applicant was undertaking groundwater monitoring ahead of eventual excavation work, design and fit-out work, and “substantial ongoing financial investment”.
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In a council decision granting the extension on October 26, principal specialist planner Daniel Kinnoch said “substantial progress” had been made towards the development.
“This progress is not evidenced by any physical on-site activity with the city rail link project being a significant external factor which has hindered physical progress of the consent.”
Link Alliance project director Francois Dubouit told the Herald CRL had engaged collaboratively with NDG and its consultants since 2013 on the project’s design and timing.
“The Link Alliance believes there is nothing in its construction programme that prevents NDG Asia Pacific (NZ) from progressing the design of its building.”
A Land Information NZ spokeswoman said the OIO consent required construction to begin on the tower before March 2027.
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The Herald reported last year that Ding had been forced to sell a boutique West Auckland vineyard after breaching overseas investment rules.
He was granted consent in 2012 to buy 28ha of Oratia land for $5m that was once home to the old Sapich Bros vineyard and winery.
Documents released to the Herald under the Official Information Act show Ding undertook to continue running the wine business and increase production to supply local wine to his hotels in China.
He also promised to become “ordinarily resident in New Zealand” by 2015.
However, he was ordered to dispose of the property in 2019 after failing to meet his obligations and breaching the conditions of his consent.
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