Tony Gapes' Victoria Street West, in liquidation, may have $1.4M available to creditors

Monday 4th May 2015

Liquidators of property developer Tony Gapes's investment vehicle Victoria Street West are yet to finalise how much is owed, but said there is the potential of $1.4 million to be available for unsecured creditors.

Victoria Street West appointed liquidator John Gilbert of C&C Strategic on April 10. In Gilbert's first liquidators report, he was still establishing how much was owed to creditors. The liquidators report says Victoria Street West, previously known as RW Corporate and Redwood Group, bought a development property prior to the global financial crisis in 2008. The development became "unviable" and was eventually sold by the mortgagees, leaving a number of "unsecured creditors including related parties" unpaid.

Victoria Street West had not traded since 2014, and appears to have acted as corporate trustee for the Redwood Group Trust, said Gilbert's report. Redwood Group is a property developer wholly owned by Gapes.

The developer has previously said more liquidations may follow as his accountant goes through various company structures. Gapes is listed as the shareholder and director of six companies, of which he is the sole shareholder of five, according to the Companies Office.

In an email to BusinessDesk in April after the appointment of the liquidators, Gapes said Victoria Street West was an unused entity, and "after what we have been through in the last few years we are starting to go through and tidy up a lot of our old entities so we have no loose ends hanging around going forward."

Gapes is building 424 affordable townhouses and apartments for his Springpark residential development in the Auckland suburb of Mount Wellington. In May last year, Gape's majority owned Panama Road Developments, the developer responsible for Springpark, was put into receivership when Crown Finance demanded repayment, leaving Panama Road owing secured creditors $2.5 million. The company emerged out of receivership two months later and the development is now fully funded, Gapes said.

Springpark's website names Redwood Group as the developers, however Gapes said in his email Panama Road was the developer. Gapes said the first 160 homes were under construction with the first home expected in June.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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