Property Insider: Seph ‘Sticky’ Glew expands further in NZ via Wotso; cladding failure on Queen St; NZICC opening delay explained; new Centuria offer for supermarket hub

Seph (left) and Jessie Glew of ASX-listed company Wotso. Photo / Wotso

What happened to ex-Chase Corp’s Seph “Sticky” Glew? His daughter explains; more on the Queen St building where masonry fell last week; SkyCity’s NZICC is delayed (yet again), the reasons behind that; and a new Centuria offer – all in today’s Property Insider.

An Australian short-stay office company, headed by ex-Chase Corporation executive Seph “Sticky” Glew, is expanding here, with his daughter Jessie Glew at the helm.

Joseph Raymond Glew is the non-executive chairman of ASX-listed flexible workplace landlord Wotso Property, which has a market cap of A$110 million ($122m), 28 sites in Australia and soon to be four in New Zealand, having just agreed to buy in Whangārei and shortly moving to downtown Auckland.

Jessie Glew says she has strong family connections in New Zealand and buying is attractive.

“The New Zealand market remains largely underserviced by flexible workspace providers, particularly in suburban and regional areas where demand for agile, community-focused workspaces is growing,” she says.

Jessie Glew of the flexible workspace provider Wotso. Photo / Wotso

Wotso is paying vendor Donovan Group $3.7m for 31 Hannah St, Whangārei. That is a 2124sq m ex-car sales yard near the city centre in a deal settling in May.

Jessie Glew said the building could accommodate around 120 desks in 600sq m.

In Auckland, Wotso has sites at 158 Lake Rd, Belmont and at 9 Huron St, Takapuna. Jessie Glew said her father worked on the development of that Takapuna building.

Wotso will open a fourth site at Te Tōangaroa, the former Quay Park, in June.

It has around A$300m of property.

“Dad and I have been working together for close to 15 years. I studied international communications but I’ve been involved in the property business since I was very young just because of the dinner table conversations we would have,” Jessie Glew said.

Born in Australia, Glew had let her New Zealand passport lapse. She studied at Macquarie University in Sydney and said she was also nicknamed Sticky at high school.

Seph (left) and Jessie Glew of ASX-listed company Wotso, which is expanding in New Zealand. Photo / Wotso

Wotso NZ Holdings, Ostow NZ and Karaka House are some of the companies the Glews are using in New Zealand.

Seph Glew worked in the commercial property industry here, the United States and Australia and has driven large-scale property development and financial structuring for real estate for more than 40 years.

He likes a spot of bother. Since the early 1990s, he has run many turnaround processes with distressed properties and property structures for private and institutional owners. He once worked for what was New Zealand’s Housing Corporation and AMP, qualified as a registered valuer and also holds a Bachelor of Commerce.

In the 1980s, he was an executive director of Chase Corporation.

Daughter Jessie (left) and father Seph Glew, who are expanding their flexible workspace business. Photo / Wotso

Jessie Glew concluded: “I learned financial discipline from my father. He learned a lot from his Chase era and brought a lot of that into our business today, particularly with company structures. We acquire assets that are either vacant or distressed. The Whangārei asset wasn’t distressed. We also lease space from other owners like Ngāti Whātua. That will be a hybrid lease where we pay rent based on a percentage of turnover.”

She has a younger sister, Sophie Glew. Both sisters had babies last year, making Seph Glew a granddad twice since last July.

Cladding fall

The building shedding cladding last week was 99 Queen St.

Part of that is owned by New Zealand’s largest hotel owners which are also carpark, office and industrial investors: the wealthy C.P. Group, established by Charles Pandey.

His son Prakash Pandey told Property Insider that although the business owned floors within that building that shed two pieces of cladding, it was not cladding from its floors which fell on to Queen St on February 10.

“It’s got nothing to do with the strata floors that C.P. owns. We own the office strata titles only. It’s from level 11, residential apartments which are strata owned by another party. BCA are the body corporate management,” Pandey said.

Police cordon off a section of Queen St, Auckland last week after masonry fell from a building injuring a pedestrian. Photo / Dean Purcell

NZICC opening

What was behind last week’s announcement from SkyCity Entertainment Group blaming Fletcher for further hold-ups to the New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC) and saying it could not open till next February?

“Delays by the contractor means [sic] that SkyCity does not expect to commence its own commissioning and operational readiness activities at the NZICC until the second half of 2025, following the delivery of the completed NZICC from the contractor,” SkyCity said.

But Fletcher reiterated that nothing had changed.

It named completion as being the end of this June 30 financial year: at the annual meeting and in last year’s annual report.

So twice, then.

So why delay all those extra months and not open till February?

Partly, it seems it is because such a big property takes time to commission: systems must be A1 by the time the first conference starts – and that can take months. Conferences must succeed and nothing can go wrong, leaving technical bedding-in challenges and work for the team being led by Prue Daley as NZICC general manager.

Daly has extensive experience in the global business events and hospitality industries, including the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Accor. She also serves as a board member for Business Events Industry Aotearoa.

Partly, those months of delay are also because the conference season begins winding down for the year from November and does not return in January. Christmas and the holiday season intervene.

Could it also be that SkyCity thinks there could be some slippage to completion? Let’s wait and see.

Centuria offers Woolworths property investment

Woolworth's distribution centre for the South Island in Christchurch. Centuria is offering investors an opportunity to buy into this. Photo / Centuria Capital

Centuria has a new offering for a South Island property investment.

Centuria Shands Road Property Trust is offering 7.35% forecast pre-tax cash distribution for the first three years from April 1 this year to those who want to buy into one supermarket giant’s South Island distribution centre.

The Woolworths property is at Hornby, Christchurch.

General Distributors is the anchor tenant in the property at 146-166 Shands Rd.

An image shows an aerial view of the property with an existing warehouse overlaid with an expansion.

Investors will get monthly returns and must pay a minimum of $25,000.

The total project cost is $88.7m and $25.7m is sought via the fund, with the rest paid for via debt and and existing investor equity.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.