The rise of one of the country’s biggest residential developers has been dotted by the odd business and courtroom failure, and could yet face defeat in the court of public opinion. More than 10,000 people have signed a parliamentary petition against its plans to build 800 houses on a golf course it’s purchased.
Wolfbrook Residential, which is embroiled in an increasingly high-profile dispute with north Canterbury’s Pegasus community, has just donated $40,250 to the National Party.
It coincides with the disclosure, by a local MP, that the firm is planning to ask the minister to refer its project into the fast-track consenting scheme. Labour’s Dan Rosewarne met last week with Wolfbrook chief executive Guy Randall and two other executives: “They did outline their intent to go through the fast-track process,” Rosewarne says. “I expressed my concerns around the National Government’s fast track process, which lacks public consultation.”
He doesn’t suggest that the donation is intended to buy influence. “Any kind of brown envelope situation concerns me,” he says. “The community are joining their own dots.”
Randall answered questions from Newsroom this week. It’s the first time Wolfbrook has spoken publicly since announcing the purchase of Pegasus golf course on May 15, for a reported $6-7 million from liquidators.
He is unperturbed that the timing of the donation and the fast-track plan may be a bad look: “Given it is an election year we have no concerns,” he says.
A few hours after Randall’s meeting with Rosewarne, the Pegasus Residents Group held a public meeting opposing the housing development. More than 400 people turned up, but Wolfbrook was not represented. “We were not invited, and this is understandable given it was a chance for the community to discuss their views,” Randall says.
The company hasn’t yet committed to the fast-track process, he adds. “We have made no decision as yet to which approach we may take.”
It comes as Waimakariri mayor Dan Gordon speaks out strongly against the housing development, saying the golf course land is not zoned for housing – that can only be changed with council approval for a private plan change, or a fast-track application.
Kieran Read, pictured with Wolfbrook Property Group chief executive Guy Randall and co-owner Steve Brooks, says they have similar values and attributes. ‘I like that Wolfbrook are a great Kiwi company built on strong foundations and enabling people to take that step to home ownership or investment.’ Photo: Wolfbrook PR
He’s told Housing Minister Chris Bishop that using the fast-track process to undermine the council’s carefully developed plan for the Pegasus area and its infrastructure would be unacceptable.
“After several years of consulting on our district plan with the wider community, including identification of areas that are appropriate for housing, the use of fast-track for this proposal is not appropriate,” Gordon tells Newsroom. “I will be writing to Minister Bishop seeking a decision from him to decline the use of fast-track for this proposal.”
But that may be a big ask. Seven of the 24 projects approved under this Government’s Fast-track Approvals Act 2024 are linked to people or organisations that have made political donations, totalling more than $1 million. RNZ reports that only one donor’s project has been declined, and another withdrawn.
Among those approved, a Carter Group project was given the tick after an $80,000 donation to National, and developer Winton has had two projects green-lit after more than $210,000 in donations to National, Act and NZ First from founders Chris and Michaela Meehan and their businesses.
Wolfbrook’s founders will be hoping Bishop looks similarly kindly on referring their Pegasus project into the fast-track process.
The Pegasus Residents Group, not so much. President Matt James says the community’s concerns are that the fast-track process allows fewer opportunities for impacted parties to be heard, and it’s a very contentious issue.
Should zoning and consenting for big housing projects be decided locally, or by a central government-appointed panel? “I have a very strong view,” he replies.
Waimakariri Council only completed its district plan review last year, James says. It cost a lot of money and entailed a lot of consultation. It was informed by research on the future needs of the district, and baked in future developments for consideration and consenting.
“They decided where things should or shouldn’t be in the plan, and that went through a very stringent public consultation process, and that was signed off.
“Now third party developers come in and wish to change that. It’s not in line with the research and consultation that was done with the community at large and the council, and it’s certainly not what the residents of Pegasus would want.”
For Wolfbrook, this political donation comes after a rollercoaster 12 months in which it was slapped down in two High Court cases for its handling of property acquisitions and developments.
Courting difficulties
In the High Court at Christchurch, Judge Dale Lester found for Christchurch City Council in a dispute over responsibility for overhanging balconies that Wolfbrook had planned to build in a “substantial” 60-unit residential development. The company had to drop the plans at great cost.
Wolfbrook and its directors, Steve Brooks and James Cooney, confidentially settled another $110,000 claim out of court, after Wellington High Court judge Owen Paulsen slammed the company’s conduct of the case.
This case was taken by an Upper Hutt homeowner, Pam Bright, who’d sold her house to a Wolfbrook subsidiary and bought a new property for $938,000 – only for Wolfbrook to then renege on its purchase.
She took them to court, but they dragged their heels. According to the judge, the case became “bogged down in procedural skirmishes”.
“The delays impose a greater burden upon Ms Bright than upon a commercial entity such as Wolfbrook, but it is Wolfbrook that has primarily caused the delays which should not be allowed to continue,” Judge Paulsen ruled. “I do not consider the argument Wolfbrook wishes to advance meritorious or of sufficient importance (generally or to the parties) to justify the substantial delay and expense of an appeal.”
Brooks and Cooney had already put the subsidiary company, Fix My Property Ltd, into liquidation. After an interim judgment in Bright’s favour, they settled.
Bright and her lawyers have declined to comment this week, but a liquidation report reveals Fix My Property Ltd’s related parties (presumably Wolfbrook and its directors) have now settled the legal dispute with the company’s creditor. Bright has accordingly withdrawn her claim for $109,946.
Despite the seemingly incontrovertible evidence from the liquidators’ report, Wolfbrook denies having settled: “Although we have concluded the matter, your source is incorrect and potentially in breach of contract,” Guy Randall says.
The report says the other three unsecured creditors have also now been paid out: Tax Matters Ltd, Cooney Lees Morgan Law, and Debit and Credit Outsourcing Ltd.
Tax Matters Ltd was Wolfbrook’s accounting firm, and its director Brenton Hunt has handled other solvent liquidations for Brooks and Cooney.
He confirms his debt has now been settled. “We hadn’t been paid some fees when they went into liquidation, but they paid their money afterwards.”
Hunt explains that a solvent liquidation is a formal way of winding up a company, once it’s stopped trading and disposed of its assets and paid its debts.
“If you don’t file your annual return, a company can remove itself from the register and there are tens of thousands of companies that happens to a year. But technically speaking, someone can put them back on the register and they’re not cleanly removed,” he says.
“For a business at the end of its life, the cleanest way is to do a solvent liquidation, and then a solvency practitioner goes through the process just to clean it all up and put it to bed.”
No more Moola
Brooks was also a director, and Cooney a shareholder, in a group of companies that made headlines when it went bust, some time after the two Wolfbrook directors exited. NZ Fintech Group Holdings, its subsidiary online lender Moola.co.nz and associated companies, were put into liquidation in 2022.
Moola had run foul of the Commerce Commission and responsible lending rules, in 2021 and 2022. In March 2021 it agreed to repay $2.8m to borrowers after admitting it had charged unreasonable credit and default fees.
In July 2022, the Commerce Commission started legal action against Moola for alleged cartel behaviour in trying to control the price of online advertising on Google.
Brooks and Cooney had earlier been involved, primarily through Christchurch-based investor companies Taurus Investments and Milford Capital (not to be confused with Auckland-based investment specialist and fund manager Milford Asset Management).
Taurus and Milford were creditors in NZ Fintech Group Holdings’ receivership and liquidation, but by then Brooks and Cooney had exited, in July 2020.
“Steve Brooks resigned as a director 18 months prior to receivership and had ceased operational aspects two years prior to receivership,” Guy Randall says. “Milford and Taurus were amongst the largest creditors affected by the business collapse.”
The Taurus liquidator, Damien Grant, pointed to “an underlying structural insolvency” in the group of businesses, that became untenable during the Covid economic crisis, and with CCCFA law changes that more closely regulated lending.
“The group’s business model involved raising capital from investors and creditors and providing loans with higher interest rates, involving a higher level of risk,” Grant reported. The business model required “continuous injections of fresh capital”, and the inability to secure more funding in 2022 led to the whole group’s failure.