Sir Peter Jackson’s links to $105m Lyall Bay purchase: Biggest deal of 2024

Interests associated with filmmaker Sir Peter Jackson have spent $105 million buying a large piece of land near the Wellington Airport in what has just been announced as this year’s biggest land deal.

In revealing non-residential New Zealand property sales of $1 billion-plus in this year’s first half, Zoltan Moricz, Auckland-based head of research at agency CBRE, said today Jackson interests had bought the huge Lyall Bay block.

Moricz has released CBRE’s latest transaction monitor of large non-residential deals.

The monitor said the biggest sale of 2024 “involved almost an entire block of leasehold land in Rongotai. This transaction, involving a ground lease portfolio, encompasses multiple properties on Tirangi Rd and Kingsford Smith St, adjacent to Wellington Airport”.

McGregor St also bounds the site.

Property records show the titles on the block are owned by LB HC, standing for Lyall Bay Holding Company.

Jackson and Walsh are the only directors of LB HC.

Wellington’s Primeproperty Group sold the land for $105m to a private local investor, that monitor said.

“This single sale comprised around 70% of the total value of development site and land transactions,” the monitor said of the Jackson deal.

BusinessDesk reported this month Wellington City Councillor Tim Brown saying Jackson had been interested in that land for about “15 years” because of his plans to build a film museum.

Last year, Jackson and Dame Fran Walsh bought half a dozen sites in a block just south of the land which was sold.

The CBRE monitor did not say who paid $105m to Primeproperty but Moricz confirmed Jackson interests this morning.

The properties bought for that sum comprise an entire block except for a vehicle repair business owned by Edwards Panel & Paint.

Zoltan Moricz of CBRE confirmed the sale to Jackson interests today.

The Post reported in December ownership of the Lyall Bay block had been with a blind trust but updated Companies Office records had showed directors were listed as Jackson and partner Dame Fran Walsh.

Inquiries about the land purchase have been made this morning to Jackson’s Wingnut Films but no reply has been received yet.

Jackson and Walsh bought land at Shelly Bay last year to stop a $500m housing development and restore its natural beauty. However, the couple’s vision for Miramar Peninsula doesn’t stop there, the Herald has reported.

Since 2011, they’ve been keen to see the land above the bay become a long-promised reserve.

LB HC, a holding company with Jackson and Walsh as directors and their Wingnut company as ultimate shareholder, bought the E tū union building at 7 McGregor St last September.

This map shows some of the key Wellington property holdings which Jackson and Walsh interests have secured.

But it does not yet include the huge Lyall Bay purchase just announced.

When the Herald reported in April on the big property buy-ups, it also noted the idea of a film museum in the area.

The Post has also reported that buildings on the $105m block are being demolished.

Jackson has been spotted walking in the area.

Scenes for most of Jackson’s movies have been filmed in Shelly Bay, and the wider area provided the backdrop for his 2005 version of King Kong.

A large-scale version of Skull Island, including the giant wall that separated Kong from the rest of the island, was built above the Massey Memorial on Miramar Peninsula for the movie, the Herald has previously reported.

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.