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Leaving the concourse of his new Westin Hotel on Auckland's waterfront and heading for the vast dusty paddocks on the city's southern edge, Nigel McKenna contemplates one of his newest development projects.
"This will be the first new town to be built as a proper town centre in New Zealand since World War II. This will be a genuine town centre," he says of the $1 billion Flat Bush, planned to house 40,000 people.
Gunning down the Southern Motorway in his navy Bentley Continental, McKenna is the archetypal developer with all the trappings of vast success: cool sports car, luxury waterfront apartment in his new Lighter Quay project, influential positions on various organisations and big plans to change parts of Auckland and areas around Queenstown.
Lunching in the Westin Hotel, which he developed, owns and operates as the final project at the 1.62ha Lighter Quay urban renewal project, he pulls out a hotel card which simply states "owner".
At Queenstown, he is developing the $1 billion Kawarau Falls resort with a string of hotels and apartments. In July, he announced Britain's BlueSky Capital had invested more than $300 million in this project.
In Atlantic City, he is planning a 30-level condominium tower. In Auckland, he has just finished Beaumont Quarter, parts of the Viaduct and Lighter Quay, transforming the waterfront.
He is a migrant made good.
In the mid-1980s, McKenna left Ireland for Wellington. The son of an Irish builder, he grew up in a London terraced house.
The family moved to the Irish countryside when he was 10 and his father ran a small building firm employing half a dozen tradesmen. But he died when McKenna was 20, driving the young man to work a series of menial jobs such as washing dishes and pumping petrol to help pay the family bills.
He hankered to follow in his father's footsteps, so studied construction economics at Dublin's Trinity College and became a quantity surveyor. Thoughts turned to the other side of the world when a string of postcards, presents and letters arrived from an Irish relative living in Wellington.
McKenna initially lived in Whitby and worked for builder Argus but soon established his own firm, Kenman Consultants project managers, involved in a string of developments.
The move to Auckland was spurred by his involvement in the heritage restoration of the DFS Galleria Customhouse and 40-level Metropolis apartment tower, jobs where he met fellow developer Andrew Krukziener.
From those projects, he moved on to the Beaumont Quarter apartment project, UniLodge towers for students, hotels in Auckland and Wellington and other developments. All have been funded without the use of public money.
Flat Bush is uppermost in his mind. Only the ING/Symphony plans for Albany come near to matching Flat Bush's vision to create a town centre, he says, dismissing other areas within the city boundary where big growth is planned such as Long Bay.
"Most of them are just large residential developments that don't require a town centre. In terms of context, Sylvia Park is about 60,000sq m of retail but I could build 180,000sq m at Flat Bush, three times Sylvia Park. We've got 20ha of buildable land. Nothing like this has been done here before."
Before tendering for the job, McKenna looked at projects in Australia, particularly Canberra's fastest-growing area, Gungahlin.
As he turns off the motorway towards Ormiston Rd, McKenna points out the impressive Flat Bush gateway and infrastructure works on the site.
McKenna is New Zealand's most influential developer, taking on a breath-taking list of projects unmatched by anyone, even in the listed property sector which has access to public money. He is now shifting to the United States, Europe, Britain - and back to Ireland again.
Nigel Cook of the architectural lobby group Urban Auckland cited him as one of just a few developers who had a true understanding of how the city should be built.
He ranked 69th on this year's NBR Rich List with $120 million, up from $75 million in 2005 and $100 million last year.
Rodney Walshe, Honorary Consul General of Ireland, lauded McKenna for his generosity and business acumen saying although he initially came across as quietly spoken and somewhat reticent, this disguised a steel backbone and iron will.
"He's been very, very successful but low-key, modest and unassuming. It's only when you get closer to him you realise how confident he is," said Walshe. McKenna's Melview Developments sponsors the annual St Patrick's Festival Trust banquet in Auckland, and he is one of the youngest members of Auckland's Irish community.
As Ireland Fund of New Zealand chairman, McKenna was also closely involved in the recent visit of the President of Ireland Mary McAleese.
Andy Evans, ING's property chief in Auckland, extolled McKenna's Lighter Quay for its stunning appearance and design.
"He's thought about this and really wants to leave something that's high-quality. He's done a fabulous job," Evans said. Leaving Flat Bush for the CBD, McKenna praises the speed and efficiency of Bank of Scotland where he borrows funds for his large projects. A $500 million Central Otago venture is next on his must-do list.
"McArthur Ridge is going to be a world-class five-star hotel with a health spa. It's on a triangle that's a plateau which was designed to be the South Island's international airport in the Second World War."
McKenna ends the tour by pulling up at Lighter Quay. But his journey as the country's most influential developer has really only just begun.
Nigel McKenna
Managing director, Melview Developments
* Age: 46
* Education: Economics degree majoring in property development, Trinity College, Dublin
* Family: Children are Mark, 13 and Michelle, 15
* Positions: Chairman, Ireland Fund of New Zealand
* Director of Auckland City's Property Enterprise Board
* Member of Auckland's Urban Design Taskforce
* Vice chairman Massey University Property Foundation
* Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors member
Property projects:
* DFS Galleria Customhouse shops, Auckland
* Sebel and Quays hotel/apartments, Viaduct, $100 million
* UniLodge student towers, Auckland, $45 million
* Beaumont Quarter apartments, Auckland, $100 million
* Lighter Quay's Westin Hotel, lock and apartments, $300 million
* Quadrant hotel/apartments, Auckland $100 million.
* New Holiday Inn, Wellington, $100 million
* Kawarau Falls resort, Queenstown, $1 billion
* Flat Bush, new Manukau town for 40,000 people, $1 billion
* McArthur Ridge health resort, Central Otago, $500 million
* Atlantic City high-rise apartments, US$350 million ($453 million)
