Public slays the dragon

Paul Webb has put the golf course back on the market. Photo / Greg Bowker

As a star of TV's Dragons' Den, Paul Webb was responsible for deciding the fate of many an entrepreneur's dream.

Now he has been forced to accept the verdict of others and pack his bags for Australia after losing a fight to build a retirement village on a popular golf course.

Webb, the 35-year-old businessman behind failed airline Cityjet, bought the nine-hole course in Auckland's Papakura five years ago with Andrew Tauber.

The pair wanted to build the retirement complex on part of the course and develop a boutique golf concept on the remainder. "The idea was to replicate the four best holes in the world, with precisely the same contours and underground conditions," Webb said.

Their plans were thwarted by an encumbrance - a legal shield that protected the land from being used for anything other than golf.

The former Papakura District Council, which would have received a $1 million windfall from the project, agreed to lift the encumbrance if the public approved. But locals rejected the proposal, arguing the existing course was a community asset, with its modest annual membership and casual green fees.

More than 400 people made submissions and the council received a 1200-signature petition that demanded the encumbrance stay in place. It did and the pair have put the course on the market.

Urban planner Joel Cayford said their departure was a community victory and called for Auckland Council to buy the land.

"It will be cheap because the developer hasn't been able to develop it," he said.

"Public interest has been high. The community want it and they've fought for it."

The site is leased by the golf course until at least next year and has a capital valuation of more than $8 million. Its value would soar if the land was developed. Speaking from Australia, Webb said the boutique course would have been far more beneficial to the community than the current operation.

"This concept could have been a world first right there in good old Papakura.

"The last time I had a chance to play a game of golf would have been over a year ago.

"If I could jump in my car and head to Papakura, to me, as a golfer, that sounded like an exciting prospect. I could find time for four hours of golf.

"Unfortunately, the people who turned up at the meetings wanted to be antagonistic and argue. People were talking over us and asking repetitive questions."

Webb said it would have been "unviable" to develop the golfing concept without the retirement village.

Now, he and Tauber are focusing their investments on Gladstone, a mining town 550km north of Brisbane.

"It's booming over here.

"Our business interests were growing in Australia and shrinking in New Zealand," he said.

Webb appeared on Dragons' Den in 2006 alongside business gurus such as Sir Bob Jones.