Dave has a long history of success in business and real estate. He has proven to be a strong leader for the company and has facilitated the impressive growth of the company over the past seven years. (Property Ventures website.)

Struggling Christchurch property developer Dave Henderson will be back in court again next February. This time, just for a change, its not about winding up yet another one of his companies.

Henderson appeared in court yesterday at a hearing to make arrangements for a judge alone trial.

Hendo will be defending three charges laid under the Financial Reporting Act.

The charges relate to Henderson’s company Property Ventures, for the year to March 31, 2008, and allege that he failed to meet reporting deadlines.

Meanwhile, a regular reader of this blog has raised some interesting questions about a former Henderson property - the old Sydenham school grounds on the corner of Colombo and Brougham Streets.

This was one of the five properties that the Christchurch City Council bought from Hendo.

Hendo began developments on the site but, as his financial problems mounted, work came to a grinding halt.

'Declarity' writes: 'The only building to begin was a couple of monstrous two-storey tilt slabs covering part of the lovely old Post Office facade (now Blue Jean Cuisine). I saw last week that they had been taken down (no small task). Presumably a safety concern rather than a blow for aesthetics. Since the site is now owned by "us", I assume we paid for this de-construction. '

And, as 'Declarity' points out, the council is forking out additional money simply to pay for the upkeep of all five properties.

Fabulous. Thanks to Mayor Sideshow Bob and councillors like Sue Wells and Barry Corbett, the good citizens of Christchurch are saddled with five over-valued buildings that continue to depreciate while, at the same time, even more money is being spent just to maintain them.

I think this is called throwing good money after bad.

2 comments:

  1. Fair enough Hendy (Mr G) might not be nz's most competent businessman but, his vision for central christchurch and, what he was trying to achieve was admirable. Hendy wanted to bring more people into the central city by providing accomodation and business precincts. Regardless of his political views and business skills, from that point of view, it is a shame he failed, and what will become of his property ventures remains to be seen. However there is no doubt central christchurch will decline with the failure of hendy and that is certainly not a positive outcome.

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  2. Why did the Christchurch City Council have to buy into anything Henderson was involved in - given his poor track record? Or was this just a case of helping out a mate?

    As it is, the Christchurch ratepayer is now stuck with five over-valued buildings that not only continue to depreciate but have to maintained -at the ratepayers expense.

    This is happening while the council is severely cutting back community funding.

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