New Christchurch takes shape as Koreans back golf academy

New Christchurch takes shape as Koreans back golf academy

By Pattrick Smellie

July 1 (BusinessDesk) – A group of Korean investors, understood to include pension funds and other institutional investors, is backing a $160 million Christchurch golf course, academy and housing development that plays perfectly into the fact that thousands of the city’s residents will be looking for new homes.

Announcement of the major new investment in Christchurch comes seven days after the Christchurch City Council reversed the zoning on a 2600-section subdivision proposal known as “Prestons Road”.

Prior to the devastating series of earthquakes since last September, Environment Canterbury had been appealing against the CCC’s acceptance of the 160-hectare site, near Spencerville. The proposal had failed to gain a resource consent, but the Christchurch quakes changed everything, with large parts of the existing city to be abandoned and new suburbs developed.

The Christchurch golf academy project, fronted by Riccarton lawyer Tony Herring, from local firm Mortlock McCormack Law, is adjacent to the Prestons Road subdivision.

In the pipeline for the last eight years, the project says it will be “unique in New Zealand and Australia” and will target students in golf and the game’s administration from Australasia, North America, Scandinavia, Korea, Japan and China.

On the residential front, the development involves just 141 sections and 86 apartments, and is being developed in conjunction with Ngai Tahu iwi business interests. Some $12 million has already been sunk into the project to create an international golf course and an academy capable of training 160 students at a time.

(BusinessDesk)

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