$49,000 out of pocket after redevelopment 'games'

Former stallholders feel burned by the sale and new redevelopment of the market. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Following a 12-month battle with Victoria Park, Yousef Alshemari says he is still owed $49,000 plus costs for security and cleaning work at the market.

His firm, Marshal Security Services, walked out in November after Victoria Park had failed to pay for two months. In May it had been offered a $25,000 settlement that never materialised. In July it was offered five monthly payments of $5000.

Victoria Park's lawyers had urged it to accept because the market had secured creditors that "significantly exceeded the value of the property".

"We knew IRD were chasing them so we thought we would get nothing anyway, but we were hoping," Alshemari said.

Now the company was in liquidation with little hope Marshal would see its money.

Alshemari said Victoria Park management had played "all the games in the book" over the redevelopment of the market. "They were giving us the impression to be patient, because the future would be bringing us a $300,000 contract."

Subsequent contractor OCS Cleaning and Security had also found itself out of pocket. Alshemari said he would not do business with [developer David] Henderson again.

Former stallholders also feel burned by the sale and new redevelopment of the market. One market source said businesses had been cherry-picked, some having rental arrears wiped and others that had been there for up to 20 years given a month's notice and told to leave.

Some had been offered "draconian" eight-year leases including new operating expense and rent improvement clauses that would have doubled the cost of the sites. But business had dwindled drastically, with no investment in marketing or improvements.

"It was almost like it was a determined effort to run the place into the ground," the source said.

Stallholders had started closing on some days because they could not afford to hire staff.

The start date for the redevelopment kept being put back, and with no assurances for the future many had been unwilling to commit to long leases.

Meanwhile, the Companies Office has David Henderson in its sights over the number of failed companies he has been associated with.

Under the Companies Act a person involved in the management of two or more failed firms can be banned from managing a company for up to five years.

Phil Day, investigation manager of the National Enforcement Unit, says his office has noted the six Henderson companies placed in liquidation last week. "That would now give us enough cause for concern," he says.