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Hanover Property Finance is said to be "greatly concerned" at delays caused by a row between developers of Queensland's proposed Sansara Resort, the Gladstone Observer newspaper reports.
Hanover has tens of millions of dollars at stake plus mounting interest, the newspaper said today when it reported a huge crane which has been sitting on the proposed site has been sold.
A spokesman for Hanover, jointly owned by multi-millionaires Mark Hotchin and Eric Watson, told NZPA the company did not comment on individual clients for reasons of client confidentiality.
Hanover is New Zealand's third largest privately owned financial services group with assets of over $1 billion.
Initial reports in March 2006 said the A$300 million ($365 million) project by Mijo Developments Pty Ltd was a 117-apartment complex including 18 retail shops, a movie cinema, a conference centre, a creche and a 50m pool with villas ranging in price from A$990,000 to over A$4 million.
The resort was expected to be completed by late 2007, with the airport open to flights by 2008.
Today the newspaper quoted a developer, Mijo Developments Pty Ltd's managing director Michael Robson, as saying the sale of the crane was "nothing sinister"
The crane belonged to a former equity partner, Newtown Developments, which last month sold the crane to TQ Constructions for A$130,000 ($158,400).
Robson suggested that TQ, a Sunshine Coast-based construction company, may yet build the Sansara Resort.
"We have negotiated with TQ Constructions to build Sansara and although we have not gone to contract with them, it is likely that we will," Robson told The Observer.
"Mijo currently is negotiating to pay out the financier on Sansara despite threats from the financier to sell the Sansara site.
"I expect a re-finance will occur in four to six weeks from now."
TQ Constructions managing director Gary Johnstone said the crane may be moved from the Sansara site - he would wait and see if he won the Sansara construction work.
Robson said he still planned to develop a bar and cafe site on the foreshore and a private airport about 15km west of Agnes Water, which he bought after acquiring a caravan park at Agnes Water.
Since then, Mijo has dissolved its joint venture and conducted a lengthy legal battle with the former partners in the NSW Supreme Court.
"Mijo intends to develop Sansara ... despite persistent rumours which have surrounded us", he told the newspaper.
Construction would start at Sansara resort in the second half of 2008, while the airport site was still on the agenda for development.
- NZPA
