Fletcher demands payment for Holiday Inn

A division of construction and distribution giant Fletcher Building is moving against a developer.

A demand for payment has been issued against interests associated with Nigel McKenna.

At issue is money Fletcher claims it is owed after building Wellington's $100 million Holiday Inn Hotel.

The Fletcher Construction Group has served a creditor's application for an adjudication order or bankruptcy.

Mark Binns, chief executive of infrastructure and construction at Fletcher Building, confirmed the move from Adelaide yesterday. The sum being sought is $846,000.

Last April, the Fletcher Construction Company took action against McKenna's Melview Featherston Street over the final amount for building the 280-room 17-level hotel.

Back then, it wanted $1.7 million and won legal action. At a District Court hearing in Auckland, McKenna was not represented and his lawyers Kensington Swan were called but did not appear. Graeme Christie of Simpson Grierson represented Fletcher and won an order to enforce a Building Disputes Tribunal determination made on February 16 last year by adjudicator and barrister John Walton.

Fletcher won security over titles to 18 hotel rooms at the Holiday Inn. Most of the Holiday Inn rooms have been sold to investors, many in Asia.

McKenna has completed property projects worth more than $1 billion, putting up a string of hotels and apartments around Auckland's waterfront and elsewhere. Queenstown's Kawarau Falls is one of his projects, although KordaMentha was appointed to two of his companies there last year.