The octogenarian property developer who donated $50m to build a new children’s hospital in Wellington is selling off his portfolio after a skiing accident made him reassess his priorities.
In September 2017, Mark Dunajtschik was hit by a snowboarder while skiing on Mt Ruapehu, which left him with broken ribs, a punctured lung, face lacerations and a broken collarbone.
He was in and out of hospital for months after the accident, while he juggled his recovery with his $50 million children's hospital project.
During that time, he was also approached by Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse, which was eager to buy the building he works from, HSBC Tower on Lambton Quay. He sold it for $102.5m.
"It was just a severe accident and that made me feel, first of all, very, very physically sore,” Dunajtschik told Stuff. “It also made me concerned whether I can handle my property portfolio as I was used to because I look after everything myself, and the state I was in, I couldn't do any of the physical work."
He bought the site in 1998 and built the tower on it in 2002. Dunajtschik also sold another building, Polo House, last year. It was his first property investment in the city.
He had four major properties left in his Wellington portfolio, James Smith building, Environment House, the former Harcourts building, and Asteron House.
In July last year, Dunajtschik announced he would pay for, build and gift a $50 million children's hospital to Capital & Coast District Health Board. Construction of the new children's hospital has begun after the government also committed an extra $45.6 million to the project. It's expected to be completed in 2021.
Born in Yugoslavia but of German ethnicity, Dunajtschik spent three years in a Yugoslav concentration camp during World War II before escaping with his mother and becoming a refugee in Germany.
An apprenticeship in tool-making turned into creating Precision Grinding – Wellington’s largest tool, cutter and blade sharpening specialist - before Dunajtschik sold the business to a nephew in 1987 and bought his first property from Sir Bob Jones.
2018: $300 million