Hobsonville jobs plan dies

By Jock Anderson

Friday 22nd November 2002

Expatriate Canadian-based boat builder Bill Lloyd, trumpeted last year by the government as an economic miracle worker, is considering jumping ship and heading back to Vancouver.

A heady state-backed economic bubble that promised hundreds of millions of dollars of new export trade and hundreds of new jobs burst this week.

Mr Lloyd, the enterprising owner of Sovereign Yachts, yesterday accused the government of stabbing him in the back over a state housing plan announced last week which he said would destroy his multimillion-dollar marine park project at Hobsonville.

The Hobsonville marine park development was touted as the vanguard of the Labour government's "think big" policy, a great leap forward for its so-called "jobs machine" and the first revolutionary example of government and business working hand in hand.

Economic Development Minister and then deputy prime minister Jim Anderton arrived by helicopter to open Sovereign Yachts' massive boat shed last year, having wooed his mate Mr Lloyd with promises of top-level co-operation and profitable investment returns.

Yesterday an angry and disappointed Mr Lloyd told The National Business Review he had already sunk more than $10 million into Hobsonville with up to another $25 million earmarked.

He said the government's state house plan would ruin the development value of prime residential and waterfront land he held an option over.

People would not want to pay $750,000 to $1 million for waterfront sections if they risked overlooking cars parked on state- house lawns, he said.

He said there was also an increased security risk for potential marine business participants.

Mr Lloyd said he was on the brink of tossing up whether to stay in New Zealand or return to Vancouver.

"Having encouraged me to return and set up at Hobsonville with the expectation I would relocate my entire boat-building business here, the government has now pulled the rug from under me," Mr Lloyd said.

Such a move would end Mr Lloyd's involvement in much-vaunted government promises of a $600 million export trade in luxury mega-yachts and the expected creation of up to 400 new boat-building jobs in Auckland.

He would also withdraw from seeking a piece of a joint-venture bid for the government's $500 million naval ship-replacement programme.

Mr Lloyd said the whole concept of a marine park or cluster that drew his business to Hobsonville would be lost because the government had "screwed up."

"I don't know why the government has done this. Having got me here they obviously can't stomach the thought of me going ahead with a major project that might actually make money," he said.

It could spell curtains for the ambitious mega-yacht project which rankled with existing Auckland boat-building businesses miffed by missing out on Sovereign Yachts' fast-track favouritism.

"They [the government] are going to screw the whole marine park up ... it's too bad we are losing it ... it's a big disappointment what's coming down," Mr Lloyd said.

Mr Lloyd said the marine industry was "uptight" over last week's government announcement that part of the Hobsonville airbase land would be turned over to state houses.

The government plans to build state houses on about 42ha of land which includes about 68ha of land originally owned by the Luke family over which Mr Lloyd has a five-year lease with option to buy.

Mr Lloyd already owns 4ha on which Sovereign Yachts is sited.

Helensville National MP John Key said yesterday Mr Lloyd's option would have enabled him to develop residential land profitably and in keeping with the largely waterfront Hobsonville location to help fund the marine industry park.

He said state houses would severely reduce the anticipated value of desirable sections.

Mr Key said there was speculation that a disgruntled Mr Lloyd would pull out of New Zealand next year.

Political sources claimed the government thought it had "backed the wrong horse" in promoting Sovereign Yachts as the catalyst for the development of what it touted would be a multimillion-dollar-earning marine cluster at Hobsonville.

Sources said Mr Lloyd was disillusioned by political controversy over his fast-track entry to Hobsonville and the chilling of relations with a once-welcoming government, especially after Mr Anderton's political downgrading.

Sources said the government regarded him as "a difficult customer" and wanted him out.

Mr Lloyd's Sovereign Yachts was lured to the Hobsonville airbase site amid sweet land deals and promises of mega-million-dollar boosts to the economy.

Officials issued paperwork in less than two hours to please a government impatient to promote the Hobsonville boat-building proposal.

In a project driven by Mr Anderton, the cabinet issued a special instruction to the defence department to sell 4ha of land to Mr Lloyd at around $480,000, later described as a rock-bottom price for land that would have been worth about 10 times more.

Mr Anderton hailed the project as a triumph for the government's so-called "jobs machine" with promises of hundreds of new jobs.

Mr Lloyd said Sovereign Yachts employed 79 people and expected to launch its first 135 foot $30 million boat in the new year in time for the America's Cup.

Opposition politicians mounted vigorous attacks against the way the government and Waitakere city council fast-tracked the Sovereign Yachts deal.

In the face of claims by Act New Zealand finance spokesman Rodney Hide, Mr Lloyd was forced in April to deny his boat-building empire was financially troubled or on the receiving end of debt-recovery action.

Checks in Canada disclosed that Mr Lloyd had previously been banned from being a director of a public company for five years and fined $C20,000 for alleged insider trading.

Waitakere mayor Bob Harvey's attempt to have private investigators check Mr Lloyd's financial position fell flat when it was discovered Canadian law would have required Mr Lloyd to be advised, which Mr Harvey's council did not want.

The then National MP Brian Neeson also attacked the Hobsonville project as a sham shielding a landgrab.

Mr Lloyd said a special report into Sovereign Yachts' finances by PricewaterhouseCoopers in June cleared the company of any suggestion it had financial problems and established it was financially sound.

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