Deborah Hill Cone: Hendo - before the fall, he flew

Illustration / Anna Crichton

I have never met David Henderson. The Princes Wharf party boy one, not the IRD "Be Very Afraid" one. I have seen him around the traps though. Last time he looked a bit rumpled and subdued at a function at Euro restaurant. He seems to have taken to wearing trenchcoats and his hair could do with a wash. Then again, if I was trying to stave off bankruptcy, my personal hygiene might suffer too.

I admire him though.

Where would people whose relationships split up live if it was not for David Henderson? I lived in Shed 20 about 10 years ago after the breakup of a relationship.

You could open the curtains naked and shimmy "hello sailor" at the visiting cruise ships parked right outside your window. But it was a pleasant building to live in - possibly helped by the fact that I didn't get kept awake by the nightclub racket downstairs since in those days it was usually me who was down there making it.

I wouldn't want to have bought a Princes Wharf apartment, though, as being leasehold it seemed like you might as well just rent for 50 years.

Who wants to buy an apartment when the lease only has a few more years to run? But everyone said he wouldn't get such an audacious project off the ground and he did.

It seems a shame that Hendo gets lumped in with all the villains from finance companies. What did Mark Hotchin personally build other than the temple to his ego in Paritai Drive? I'm sure Hanover must have backed some big developments people know and love - other than posh baches at Matarangi - but none that changed the Auckland skyline spring to mind.

All executives who have run into money trouble are not created equal. At least Hendo actually created something which people enjoy and which has endured and added something to the city.

Still, now that he is almost bankrupt he is snickered about as if he was in the same category as Rod Petricevic.

Of course he did indulge in the usual Dubai-ish property developer behaviour.

He has number plates Hendo 1, Hendo 2, Hendo 3 and, ahem, Hendo 4 for the cars of his various wives.

One of them is said to have got a divorce payout of $9 million which he handed over to her at a restaurant with a bunch of red roses and a pair of diamond earrings. Classy dude.

Last week Henderson had a meeting with creditors. I am mystified as to how they could be claiming $166 million in personal guarantees.

That seems a stupidly large amount. I don't recall Andrew Krukziener giving such huge personal guarantees. I think part of the sum relates to the long leases on Princes Wharf. IRD is also claiming $3 million. Maybe Hendo the Auckland property developer and Hendo the Christchurch IRD-hound could join forces.

Hendo planned a revamp of Victoria Park market - and no one would deny that that would be a good thing. I am so old I can remember Princes Wharf pre-development - rustic and quaint with some real sheds and people fishing off the end. But I don't think anyone who has sat on the deck of White restaurant in the Hilton and watched the yachts sail by would disagree that Henderson created something which made Auckland cooler. And as someone who does know him told me: he isn't a bad bugger.