A half-completed “eyesore” apartment building in Epsom Central finds a buyer after four years

A troubled apartment building that sat unfinished for four years on Auckland’s Manukau Road, causing problems for neighbours, has finally found a buyer willing to take on the challenge.

The Epsom Central Apartments project was halted in 2019 when Auckland Council issued a stop work notice after monitoring staff found it did not comply with building consent.

The partnership behind the construction was placed into receivership in 2022, owing $11 million to a bank and $2.3 million to construction company KNCC Ltd.

Meanwhile, the surrounding community has become such an eyesore that it has been allowed to fall into disuse, says antiques dealer Yvonne Sanders.

Her shop next door was robbed three times in four days by a thief who gained access to her roof by climbing onto an unattended construction site.

“They penetrated the roof of my house with a tomahawk and then abseiled through a skylight. The thief was clearly supplying stolen antiques to someone, but the third time the police arrested him.

Sanders recalls a time early in the project when land agents visited on behalf of the developer, offering to buy her building, redevelop it and then rent it back to her. She was still waiting.

“There’s no way I’m going to sell this building anyway. I told them not to bother coming back.”

Developer Shane Xin Zhou appears to have left his real estate empire behind. The final recipients report said he could not be found, and that he had taken the partnership’s financial statements with him.

The Companies Office has warned at least six companies he owns that they will soon be removed from the register after he failed to file annual returns.

Another neighbor, Peter Byers, considered buying the building but after touring the unfinished site, decided the task was too big.

“It’s going to cost a million dollars just to knock it down and get it up and running again. It’s a really unfortunate situation for Auckland, and unfortunate for Epsom.”

An Auckland Council spokesman said Things That the developer applied for retrospective approval but was refused by monitoring officials because they could not confirm that the reinforcement or waterproofing met standards. The notice to fix and stop any further development of the site remains in place.

The property was listed in March as a foreclosed sale, but was then withdrawn in April, leaving neighbors wondering if a resolution will ever be reached.

but, Things It can be revealed that it has been purchased by Xiao Liu from Venus Funds – the creditor that placed the developer into receivership.

Liu confirmed to a reporter that she had purchased the property but could not say what the building had in store.

She said it has not yet been decided whether the building will be demolished or what might replace it.

“It’s all confidential, and I don’t want to talk about it now.”

Meanwhile, his neighbor John Ewart has the “misfortune” to have a solicitor’s office and house overlooking the abandoned site. For everyone’s sake, he hopes to make rapid progress.

He said: “I gave up on the idea of ​​building a five-story building next to me due to the housing crisis, but this is what I cannot afford.”

“Right now, it’s just a matter of rounding up criminals and rats.”