Property twists make for a Capital time

If there is one thing Chris Gudgeon hates, it is being mistaken for a Brit.

The Capital Properties chief only speaks with a British accent - more like a toff than an oik - due to his parents' lust for foreign shores.

His schoolteachers in Singapore were British and, through 12 years of schooling, he learned to talk like them without particularly noticing.

"And when you grow up speaking a certain way, it's hard to change," admits the landlord in charge of a $500 million portfolio.

Gudgeon is proud of his family's long history here.

"My family got to New Plymouth in 1850, landing right in the middle of the Maori wars," he discloses on the line from Wellington.

Gudgeon, 44, was brought up in Asia because of his father's career shift. His parents, originally from Christchurch, shifted to Singapore in 1954 and he was born there.

Dad was a civil engineer, working in the island nation when it was still a British colony, initially for the Singapore City Council as an engineer, then for local construction companies and, eventually, founding his own construction firm.

"It was a wonderful exercise for them," recalls Gudgeon. "They lived there for 30 years and now they live in Auckland."

A passion for property got into Gudgeon's blood early in life.

He followed in his father's footsteps, studying for a civil engineering degree at Canterbury University, then doing an MBA at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He then returned to work for McConnell Dowell in New Zealand and Hong Kong.

But in 1988 he met the most influential group of people gathered as one team in property here, all cutting their teeth with the then-great Challenge Properties.

As Gudgeon notes, Challenge's assets were moved to the formerly listed St Lukes Group and eventually taken over by Australia's Westfield.

At Challenge, Gudgeon worked for Mark Binns, now Fletcher Building's divisional chief of concrete and construction and hailed in the industry for his foresight and abilities.

Former Property Council events manager Alison Smith, credited with enlivening and expanding that group's image and events before leaving last year, was also at Challenge.

So was Dress-Smart founder, international photographer, philanthropist, author and entrepreneur John Bougen. So too Kiwi Income Property Trust chief executive Angus McNaughton, along with a group of executives who now work at Kiwi.

Gudgeon managed the redevelopment of Shore City at Takapuna, Chartwell Square at Hamilton, the Johnsonville Mall in Wellington and Downtown Shopping Centre in Auckland.

He speaks with fondness for that phase of his career.

"It was a real growth phase for Challenge," he recalls.

From 1995 to 2001, he was at Kiwi, most notably as general manager of Kiwi Development Trust, the spun-off listed entity which developed the country's tallest office tower, the Vero Centre on Shortland St, although when he was heading the project the building was called the Royal & SunAlliance Centre.

There, Gudgeon was landed with the somewhat unpalatable task of leasing floors - including the lofty eagle's nest at the top - during an economic downturn after the Asian crisis.

Tenants were turning their backs on lavish office suites and Gudgeon was photographed by the Herald as a lonely figure standing on a vast empty floor of the tower.

When Kiwi's founders sold out to Australians, Gudgeon headed the way of many other local executives: out the door.

His career took a surprising step: he went to work with a residential developer with no corporate presence, stepping out of the public gaze.

Nigel McKenna's Melview Developments drew Gudgeon with an offer to take an equity stake in one of the country's best apartment buildings: North at Lighter Quay on the Auckland waterfront, a block inhabited by multi-millionaires including car industry magnate Colin Giltrap.

On January 26 last year, Gudgeon started as Capital's chief, taking over from Nick Wevers, who left Wellington to become the head of Auckland residential investor Blue Chip NZ.

Later in the year, rival Kiwi bought a 19.95 per cent in Capital for $53.4 million without declaring its intentions. Capital responded by putting its management up for sale, an asset one analyst said could sell for between $22.9 million and $50 million but was more likely to be sold for around $31.8 million.

That sparked complaints from Kiwi, which were rejected by regulators. So Kiwi is forcing Capital to hold a shareholder meeting for full and frank discussions about the management sale.

A right royal showdown is expected between Gudgeon and his former Kiwi colleague McNaughton.

But in a somewhat stiff-upper-lip mode, both are being courteous about matters and claiming their dealings remain as cordial as ever.

Just don't tell Gudgeon he is behaving like an English gentleman.

CHRISTOPHER WAYTH GUDGEON

* Position: chief executive of listed property investor Capital Properties.

* Schooling: Singapore and Christ's College, Christchurch.

* Family: married with three sons.

* Digs: the family is in Kelburn but has kept a Herne Bay home.

* Work history: formerly of Melview Developments, Kiwi Development Trust and Challenge Properties.

* Big deals: leasing the Vero Centre on Shortland St in Auckland, redeveloping Riccarton Mall in 1994 and developing North at Lighter Quay, a luxury apartment block on the waterfront.

* Now: awarded a $58.5 million contract with the Government for a new Defence Headquarters building in Wellington, after winning the competitive tender last year.