Goodman pitches development to Christchurch City

Goodman this afternoon presented its proposal to Christchurch City Council for a retail and office development in Cashel St.

Goodman general manager Peter Dufaur was involved in the presentation.

When asked by NBR ONLINE which Goodman entity he represented, Mr Dafaur says he wears several hats.

He is employed by Goodman Property Services, a division of the manager of the listed Goodman Property Trust.

But he also provides services to Goodman Group, which often acquires property to on-sell to the trust.

Goodman is competing with a rival development plan by Ocean Partners, some of whose members own the property titles within the targeted site.

According to Ocean Partners director Tim Howe, the property is not designated for compulsory acquisition.

This would mean that if the Goodman proposal was favoured it would require special intervention of some kind by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority or Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee to wrest the properties from their current local owners.

Another possibility is that Goodman might offer to buy the properties at prices that would be too good to turn down.

The way Mr Howe paints the picture, his group’s plan achieves most of the aims of the central city blueprint rebuild requirements.

Most signficiantly, it provides a development which allows local commercial property owners to reinvest their money in their own city.

Mr Howe says the Goodman plan is also problematic because it requires an additional piece of land stretching towards the Avon River, which would require closure of Oxford Tce and changes to the reserve status of the riverbank.

Normally, this would require public consultation.

Under new resource consent processing rules, the city council must process the resource consent applications lodged by the two groups within five days.

c.hutch@clear.net.nz