September 2, 2024 • 16 mins
The year’s biggest land deal has Wellington aflutter with rumours Sir Peter Jackson could be building his long-awaited movie museum.
Interests associated with The Lord of the Rings director have spent $105 million buying a large piece of land near the city’s airport in Lyall Bay.
So, why the secrecy? And could Jackson’s vision be finally brought to life?
Today on The Front Page, we’re joined by BusinessDesk markets reporter Gregor Thompson to discuss the famous filmmaker’s latest property acquisition, and what his plans might be for Wellington.
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You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.
Host: Georgina Campbell
Sound Engineer: Paddy Fox
Producer: Ethan Sills
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Kilda. I'm Georgina Campbell in for Chelsea Daniels and this
is the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by The
New Zealand Herald. The year's biggest land deal has Wellington
a flutter, with rumors Sir Peter Jackson could be building
his long awaited movie museum. Interests associated with the Lord
(00:28):
of the Rings director have spent one hundred and five
million dollars buying a large piece of land near the
city's airport in Lyle Bay. So why the secrecy and
could Jackson's vision be finally brought to life? Today on
the Front Page, we're joined by a business desk markets
reporter Gregor Thompson to discuss the famous filmmaker's latest property
(00:51):
acquisition and what his plans might be for Wellington. Let's
start with the land at south. Where is it and
what does it look like?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So it's a big block of land in the Wellington
suburb of Rongatai and Lyle Bay on the southern end
of the suburb. It's in between the airport retail space
and a big Bunnings warehouse just west of the Wellington Airport.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
How has this land prime land? It's very close to
the waterfront. How has that land come to be sold?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Just so you know, I haven't talked to anybody directly
related in the sale. That's their choice, not mine. I've
been trying very hard. But what we do know from
triangulating kind of previous reporting, looking at the company's register
and you know, looking at property records, the land in
question was formerly under a leasehole arrangement between Wellington property
developer called Prime Properties and the Wellington International Airport. Now
(01:48):
it's a bit kind of complicated and esoteric, but basically,
under a leasehold arrangement, which is a form of ownership,
there is a freehold interest which means that you own
the land, and then there is a leasehold interest mean
that you're entitled to lease out the land, and the
lease holdy interest in this case as the airport was
paying money to the freehold interests in order to have
(02:09):
the right to lease out the land. That's not that interesting.
But what is interesting is that now if you look
at the property records, a company called lb HC, so
we think that means Lalo Bay Holding Company, which is
directed by Sir Peter Jackson and Dame fran Welsh, the filmmakers.
Now they have both interests in the land, so now
they only have a freehold. So we think what's happened
(02:32):
and we'll actually what the property records say is that
they have paid one hundred and four million dollars for
twelve properties in Lao Bay and now they both have
complete freehold ownership over the property.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
And they also purchased land there last year.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, so some reporting from our esteemed colleagues at The Herald,
actually Matt Nippett managed to reveal last year that they
had bought sections or just south of the sections that
were recently reported to have been sold, and that was
for about thirty five million dollars. So that takes the
entire cost of all of these two blocks of land
(03:08):
to one hundred and forty million dollars.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
The Jackson case is just so particularly fascinating because he's
a world class billionaire and artistic talent, and his real
estate purchases, particularly and Miramar, are not solely driven by profit.
He's not able to rent these churches out. It's a
very old school sort of feudal vibe almost about the thing.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Should we be concerned about that at all?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Well, as long as it's in the open, you know,
Jackson hasn't broken any laws, but definitely worth keeping an eye.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
This recent purchase. They paid well over the RV, right.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, so if you add up the rating valuation of
all the properties in this block that they've just purchased,
it comes in at about forty million dollars below what
they've paid. So, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
I mean, why would somebody pay so much money for
a piece of land, you know, like that's quite a
significant amount over the RV.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, well, just remember the RVs aren't perfect, I guess.
But at the same time, I think it indicates that
the person who has bought the land, Jackson and Walsh
or the people, probably have some big plans for it.
In order, I mean, in order to pay that much money,
I think, yeah, you have to be willing to do
quite a.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Lot to it. The Wellington rumor mill has gone into
overdrive about this land sale, so many people are talking
about it. What is it about this deal that kind
of sparks that sort of interest?
Speaker 2 (04:35):
The Wellington gossip stars have aligned on this one. So
at the moment, Wellingtonians are very obsessed with development, and
this is an infamously unproductive piece of brown field real
estate that hasn't been used for a long time. There's
obviously that it's right in the middle of a suburb
that is being pegged for having capacity to be developed
in the wrongion, Lal Bay. And then I think the
(04:55):
other thing, which is probably the most important aspect of
this is Jackson and Walsh associated to it. Now. They're
both very private people, which I think means that whatever
they do Gune is quite a lot of speculation. But
then the other thing is that a lot of Wellingtonians
who are home proud are home proud about things that
they've been attached to. So Lord of the Rings, you know,
(05:17):
there's been some really good exhibitions that they've both done,
So yeah, I guess there's basically he's a high profile
figure in the city.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
So considering that secrecy and that they are so private,
what has it been like trying to get at the
truth or find out what's going on here? What have
people said when you've tried to talk to them about this?
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I think it's actually quite a funny reporting story found
out about this because my friend who goes to the
gym City Fitness on this lot of land, was complaining
because he found out that Peter Jackson had bought the site,
and it was unlikely that the gym would live much longer.
Considering that, I don't know if Peter Jackson wants to
just have a gym on his land. I kind of
(06:00):
started out from there, thinking, oh, how can I get
at this story. I rang a couple of real estate agents,
you know. One of them confirmed to me off the
record that it had taken place. So then I started
looking at property records. I worked out that Prime Properties
Property Development Company had the freehold share. So I rang
up the owner. He wouldn't respond. I rang up one
of his staff, he wouldn't respond. I actually rang them
(06:21):
both several times. If you're listening to this, sorry about that.
And then I know that the leasehold land was owned
by the way Introon International Airport. So I rang the
one Inton International Airport. I didn't want to have anything
to do with me. The airport's owned two thirds by
infan Till I rang them, they didn't want anything to
do with me. I went to the Infant too AGM
and raised it with their investor relations guy, who again
(06:43):
just kind of referred me to the airport. And I
was like, oh, well, who owns the other share. Lingon
City Council owns one third of it, so I tried
to get in contact with the council and tried to
persuade them by telling them it was of public interest,
which they didn't buy so they denied to comment. Tory
Farno as well also mayor to not comment. But at
that stage my reporting was a bit troule because I coudn't
(07:03):
find anybody to confirm it. I also obviously tried to
call Jackson and fran Walsh's company, wing Nut Films. I
did get through to them, but they declined to comment.
So at this stage it's kind of in this position
where I hadn't confirmed it, but the lack of confirmation
from a whole bunch of people that I knew were
associated with it meant that there was definitely something going
on here. So then it turned into a process of elimination.
(07:24):
And after that I got in contact with Eastern Ward
Councilor Tim Brown, who luckily for me, was also a
former board member and chair of the Wellington International Airport
and he is actually quite familiar with this leasehold land
and what had been done and not done to it
over the last twenty odd years. And he confirmed to
me that there were three major projects that had been considered.
(07:48):
One of them was a kmart. I actually ended up
getting the resource consents for that, but that obviously didn't
come to fruition. And the other one was Concert was
going to move the bus depot to there, and about
a week prior to my starting reporting on this that
had been announced it had moved to Mirrama. So then
I actually rang up the Wellington Regional Council and ask
Councilor Thomas Nash if the reason that the bus depo
(08:10):
had moved to Miramars because Peter Jackson had bought it,
and then he declined to comment. I mean, I guess
all of this is a bit of a roundabout way
of saying that it was very difficult to report on
and nobody wants.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
To talk about it.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And then, of course, a couple of weeks after your
story was published, the property records kind of were updated
and confirmed that you were indeed barking up the right tree.
(08:41):
I think the reason this deal has attracted so much
public attention is because there's also speculation that it could
be the site for Wellington's long awaited movie museum. What
do you know about that potential plan.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, a bit of an open secret in Wellington that
Jackson and Walsh want to film museum. They've got an
enormous election that I think actually you know more about
I do Georgina of different movie props and that sort
of stuff. And there was an attempt to put it
into the Taquina Convention Center on Wellington's waterfront or just
behind it in twenty seventeen, but as far as I remember,
those talks soured with the council and then that fell through.
(09:17):
I guess people have always known that Jackson wanted to
build a museum. The question was really where, And you
know there's the big Chlley Bay site in the eastern
suburbs and they had previously ruled out that the museum
was going to be there, So we do know that
he wants to build one. And then the other thing
I think, which is quite probably suggestive, is that I
talked to Counselor Tim Brown and when he was with
(09:38):
the Wellington Airport they were in talks for a long
time about a potential museum. So there was at one
stage a plan to build it on top of where
the car park is, I'm told, and then another plan
was to build it in the site that Peter Jackson
has just bought. So, you know, we can't confirm absolutely
one hundred percent that this will be the site of
a museum, because Jackson and Welsh haven't said that them.
(10:00):
But I think there are a couple of strong, pretty
strong indications, so that's slightly the case.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, And as you say, there was that previous plan
to include the movie museum as part of Tarkina, the
Council's convention center. Essentially, that ideas sort of soured because,
as former Mayor Justin Lester puts it, things were just
taking too long, and he says they couldn't get more
(10:25):
detailed designs from Sir Peter Jackson and Dame fran Welsh,
and they couldn't keep pushing out the construction timelines. But
the thing about that plan is that it does offer
a bit of insight into what a movie museum could
look like and what it could bring to Wellington. So
Council documents from the time say that the museum would
(10:45):
attract three hundred and fifty thousand visitors annually, create two
hundred and fifty eight jobs, and generate twenty eight point
two million dollars in new spending each year.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Wellington is in line for a multimillion a movie museum
that back is a calling Disneyland. The museum will feature
thousands of Hollywood set pieces, props and models, including the
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car and miniatures from King Kong.
Valgueing reports the complex is expected to give the region's
economy a multimillion dollar boost.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
It was touted as a must see visitor attraction. Then
Chairwoman of Tourism New Zealand, Kerry Prendigar said, apart from Tapapa,
Wellington doesn't really have any of those sorts of attractions.
And then of course there is his film collection and
one of the exciting things that we know is in
that collection that I think appeals to a lot of
(11:40):
people is the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car. But also
the Council Documents said that the sort of exhibitions that
we could expect to see in the film museum would
span wetter groups, award winning Hollywood scale productions, some of
their earlier homegrown movies. Is thousands of designs, props, models
and pieces that would all be featured. So some pretty
(12:03):
cool stuff in the summary, I think, but back to
the land sale at South Korea. Is this a significant addition,
would you say, to Peter Jackson's property portfolio in Wellington,
because he already owns quite a lot of land, doesn't he.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
It's by any metric, a pretty big pass of land,
particularly in suburb just on the edge of the middle
of our capital city. So two point seven hectares is
rough estimate of all of the land he owns there now,
which yeah, I think is a pretty substantial property holding.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
And the other thing is that this particular purchase has
topped the list as New Zealand's largest purchase this year.
CBRE recently released its transition monitor and this single sale
comprised about seventy percent of the total value of development
site and land transactions, So a big deal in its
(12:56):
own right. But as you pointed out, Peter Jackson and
fran Welsh have recently purchased at Shalli Bayland, which they've
ruled out for the movie museum, and their plans there
are really to restore it, to become a reserve, to
bring nature back. And if you go out there at
the moment, the Chocolate Fish Cafe has reopened and it's
(13:16):
so popular that it's almost impossible to get a table
if you're there on a sunny Saturday morning, and then
there is a lot of fencing up around the site
as they do replanting, and you know they've selen some
grass and things like that. But you know, Challie Bay
and this property at Lyle Bay significant sites, along with
the other land that the couple owned. Do you think
(13:38):
this is a good thing for locals to have Sir
Petter Jackson investing in the community as much as he
does with these building acquisitions, or a developers councils and
businesses concerned that this person who has accumulated a lot
of whilst through his success can kind of do whatever
he likes with these pretty significant sites.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Whether or not Wellingtonian should be worried about that, I
guess that's what the question is first, But I don't
think it's really up to me to decide whether or
not that's true. But I do see both sides. I
can understand why people would be worried about perhaps the
power that Peter Jackson does have to develop and buy
land and then do what he wants with it. But
we do live in a country that respects private property
(14:22):
and that's kind of has entitledment, I suppose, but I
can understand why people would not want someone to do
that also have so much ability to do that in
one certain place. But then the other thing is, you know,
lots of this stuff. I think, particularly the site that
we're talking about in Laal Bay has sat relatively underdeveloped
for the last twenty years. So if you're measuring whatever
it is that he builds relative to what is there currently,
(14:44):
it seems quite difficult to me that you would have
a worse outcome than what is currently the status quo.
I guess those are the two arguments, and Wellington needs development.
I know lots of people are really pleased about what
is effectively kind of a city sugar daddy.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
I mean, I was chatting to Parrot Dog, which has
a venue out there serving up craft beer, and they
sort of said, look like anybody who wants to invest
money in beautifying areas of Wellington and that regeneration they
were supportive of, and they certainly felt that it was
pretty cool having Sir Peter Jackson attached to Wellington, caring
(15:20):
about it and willing to invest in it. But we
haven't heard from Sir Peter or Dame friend, have we
They haven't publicly confirmed anything. I mean, when will this
speculation turn into something concrete?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Do you think, Well, we know that they own the property,
we just don't know what they're going to do with it.
And my short experience in reporting on Jackson and Walsh's
property holdings, they are not very communicative, so honestly, I
don't know, but I would imagine that this is now
in the hands of architects and eventually they will file
(15:53):
resource consent on whatever they wanting to build. And once
they do that, some nosey journalists will find out they're
intending to do unless someone else talks about it before then.
But yeah, I guess we have to see.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Hey, thanks so much for joining us, Gregor. That's it
for this episode of The Front Page. You can read
more about today's stories and extensive news coverage at inzidherld
dot co dot nzied. The Front Page is produced by
Ethan Sills and sound engineer Patti Fox. I'm Georgina Campbell.
(16:29):
Subscribe to the Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you
get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for another look
behind the headlines.
Kilda. I'm Georgina Campbell in for Chelsea Daniels and this
is the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by The
New Zealand Herald. The year's biggest land deal has Wellington
a flutter, with rumors Sir Peter Jackson could be building
his long awaited movie museum. Interests associated with the Lord
(00:28):
of the Rings director have spent one hundred and five
million dollars buying a large piece of land near the
city's airport in Lyle Bay. So why the secrecy and
could Jackson's vision be finally brought to life? Today on
the Front Page, we're joined by a business desk markets
reporter Gregor Thompson to discuss the famous filmmaker's latest property
(00:51):
acquisition and what his plans might be for Wellington. Let's
start with the land at south. Where is it and
what does it look like?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
So it's a big block of land in the Wellington
suburb of Rongatai and Lyle Bay on the southern end
of the suburb. It's in between the airport retail space
and a big Bunnings warehouse just west of the Wellington Airport.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
How has this land prime land? It's very close to
the waterfront. How has that land come to be sold?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Just so you know, I haven't talked to anybody directly
related in the sale. That's their choice, not mine. I've
been trying very hard. But what we do know from
triangulating kind of previous reporting, looking at the company's register
and you know, looking at property records, the land in
question was formerly under a leasehole arrangement between Wellington property
developer called Prime Properties and the Wellington International Airport. Now
(01:48):
it's a bit kind of complicated and esoteric, but basically,
under a leasehold arrangement, which is a form of ownership,
there is a freehold interest which means that you own
the land, and then there is a leasehold interest mean
that you're entitled to lease out the land, and the
lease holdy interest in this case as the airport was
paying money to the freehold interests in order to have
(02:09):
the right to lease out the land. That's not that interesting.
But what is interesting is that now if you look
at the property records, a company called lb HC, so
we think that means Lalo Bay Holding Company, which is
directed by Sir Peter Jackson and Dame fran Welsh, the filmmakers.
Now they have both interests in the land, so now
they only have a freehold. So we think what's happened
(02:32):
and we'll actually what the property records say is that
they have paid one hundred and four million dollars for
twelve properties in Lao Bay and now they both have
complete freehold ownership over the property.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
And they also purchased land there last year.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, so some reporting from our esteemed colleagues at The Herald,
actually Matt Nippett managed to reveal last year that they
had bought sections or just south of the sections that
were recently reported to have been sold, and that was
for about thirty five million dollars. So that takes the
entire cost of all of these two blocks of land
(03:08):
to one hundred and forty million dollars.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
The Jackson case is just so particularly fascinating because he's
a world class billionaire and artistic talent, and his real
estate purchases, particularly and Miramar, are not solely driven by profit.
He's not able to rent these churches out. It's a
very old school sort of feudal vibe almost about the thing.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Should we be concerned about that at all?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Well, as long as it's in the open, you know,
Jackson hasn't broken any laws, but definitely worth keeping an eye.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
This recent purchase. They paid well over the RV, right.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah, so if you add up the rating valuation of
all the properties in this block that they've just purchased,
it comes in at about forty million dollars below what
they've paid. So, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
I mean, why would somebody pay so much money for
a piece of land, you know, like that's quite a
significant amount over the RV.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, well, just remember the RVs aren't perfect, I guess.
But at the same time, I think it indicates that
the person who has bought the land, Jackson and Walsh
or the people, probably have some big plans for it.
In order, I mean, in order to pay that much money,
I think, yeah, you have to be willing to do
quite a.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Lot to it. The Wellington rumor mill has gone into
overdrive about this land sale, so many people are talking
about it. What is it about this deal that kind
of sparks that sort of interest?
Speaker 2 (04:35):
The Wellington gossip stars have aligned on this one. So
at the moment, Wellingtonians are very obsessed with development, and
this is an infamously unproductive piece of brown field real
estate that hasn't been used for a long time. There's
obviously that it's right in the middle of a suburb
that is being pegged for having capacity to be developed
in the wrongion, Lal Bay. And then I think the
(04:55):
other thing, which is probably the most important aspect of
this is Jackson and Walsh associated to it. Now. They're
both very private people, which I think means that whatever
they do Gune is quite a lot of speculation. But
then the other thing is that a lot of Wellingtonians
who are home proud are home proud about things that
they've been attached to. So Lord of the Rings, you know,
(05:17):
there's been some really good exhibitions that they've both done,
So yeah, I guess there's basically he's a high profile
figure in the city.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
So considering that secrecy and that they are so private,
what has it been like trying to get at the
truth or find out what's going on here? What have
people said when you've tried to talk to them about this?
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I think it's actually quite a funny reporting story found
out about this because my friend who goes to the
gym City Fitness on this lot of land, was complaining
because he found out that Peter Jackson had bought the site,
and it was unlikely that the gym would live much longer.
Considering that, I don't know if Peter Jackson wants to
just have a gym on his land. I kind of
(06:00):
started out from there, thinking, oh, how can I get
at this story. I rang a couple of real estate agents,
you know. One of them confirmed to me off the
record that it had taken place. So then I started
looking at property records. I worked out that Prime Properties
Property Development Company had the freehold share. So I rang
up the owner. He wouldn't respond. I rang up one
of his staff, he wouldn't respond. I actually rang them
(06:21):
both several times. If you're listening to this, sorry about that.
And then I know that the leasehold land was owned
by the way Introon International Airport. So I rang the
one Inton International Airport. I didn't want to have anything
to do with me. The airport's owned two thirds by
infan Till I rang them, they didn't want anything to
do with me. I went to the Infant too AGM
and raised it with their investor relations guy, who again
(06:43):
just kind of referred me to the airport. And I
was like, oh, well, who owns the other share. Lingon
City Council owns one third of it, so I tried
to get in contact with the council and tried to
persuade them by telling them it was of public interest,
which they didn't buy so they denied to comment. Tory
Farno as well also mayor to not comment. But at
that stage my reporting was a bit troule because I coudn't
(07:03):
find anybody to confirm it. I also obviously tried to
call Jackson and fran Walsh's company, wing Nut Films. I
did get through to them, but they declined to comment.
So at this stage it's kind of in this position
where I hadn't confirmed it, but the lack of confirmation
from a whole bunch of people that I knew were
associated with it meant that there was definitely something going
on here. So then it turned into a process of elimination.
(07:24):
And after that I got in contact with Eastern Ward
Councilor Tim Brown, who luckily for me, was also a
former board member and chair of the Wellington International Airport
and he is actually quite familiar with this leasehold land
and what had been done and not done to it
over the last twenty odd years. And he confirmed to
me that there were three major projects that had been considered.
(07:48):
One of them was a kmart. I actually ended up
getting the resource consents for that, but that obviously didn't
come to fruition. And the other one was Concert was
going to move the bus depot to there, and about
a week prior to my starting reporting on this that
had been announced it had moved to Mirrama. So then
I actually rang up the Wellington Regional Council and ask
Councilor Thomas Nash if the reason that the bus depo
(08:10):
had moved to Miramars because Peter Jackson had bought it,
and then he declined to comment. I mean, I guess
all of this is a bit of a roundabout way
of saying that it was very difficult to report on
and nobody wants.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
To talk about it.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
And then, of course, a couple of weeks after your
story was published, the property records kind of were updated
and confirmed that you were indeed barking up the right tree.
(08:41):
I think the reason this deal has attracted so much
public attention is because there's also speculation that it could
be the site for Wellington's long awaited movie museum. What
do you know about that potential plan.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, a bit of an open secret in Wellington that
Jackson and Walsh want to film museum. They've got an
enormous election that I think actually you know more about
I do Georgina of different movie props and that sort
of stuff. And there was an attempt to put it
into the Taquina Convention Center on Wellington's waterfront or just
behind it in twenty seventeen, but as far as I remember,
those talks soured with the council and then that fell through.
(09:17):
I guess people have always known that Jackson wanted to
build a museum. The question was really where, And you
know there's the big Chlley Bay site in the eastern
suburbs and they had previously ruled out that the museum
was going to be there, So we do know that
he wants to build one. And then the other thing
I think, which is quite probably suggestive, is that I
talked to Counselor Tim Brown and when he was with
(09:38):
the Wellington Airport they were in talks for a long
time about a potential museum. So there was at one
stage a plan to build it on top of where
the car park is, I'm told, and then another plan
was to build it in the site that Peter Jackson
has just bought. So, you know, we can't confirm absolutely
one hundred percent that this will be the site of
a museum, because Jackson and Welsh haven't said that them.
(10:00):
But I think there are a couple of strong, pretty
strong indications, so that's slightly the case.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, And as you say, there was that previous plan
to include the movie museum as part of Tarkina, the
Council's convention center. Essentially, that ideas sort of soured because,
as former Mayor Justin Lester puts it, things were just
taking too long, and he says they couldn't get more
(10:25):
detailed designs from Sir Peter Jackson and Dame fran Welsh,
and they couldn't keep pushing out the construction timelines. But
the thing about that plan is that it does offer
a bit of insight into what a movie museum could
look like and what it could bring to Wellington. So
Council documents from the time say that the museum would
(10:45):
attract three hundred and fifty thousand visitors annually, create two
hundred and fifty eight jobs, and generate twenty eight point
two million dollars in new spending each year.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Wellington is in line for a multimillion a movie museum
that back is a calling Disneyland. The museum will feature
thousands of Hollywood set pieces, props and models, including the
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car and miniatures from King Kong.
Valgueing reports the complex is expected to give the region's
economy a multimillion dollar boost.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
It was touted as a must see visitor attraction. Then
Chairwoman of Tourism New Zealand, Kerry Prendigar said, apart from Tapapa,
Wellington doesn't really have any of those sorts of attractions.
And then of course there is his film collection and
one of the exciting things that we know is in
that collection that I think appeals to a lot of
(11:40):
people is the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car. But also
the Council Documents said that the sort of exhibitions that
we could expect to see in the film museum would
span wetter groups, award winning Hollywood scale productions, some of
their earlier homegrown movies. Is thousands of designs, props, models
and pieces that would all be featured. So some pretty
(12:03):
cool stuff in the summary, I think, but back to
the land sale at South Korea. Is this a significant addition,
would you say, to Peter Jackson's property portfolio in Wellington,
because he already owns quite a lot of land, doesn't he.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
It's by any metric, a pretty big pass of land,
particularly in suburb just on the edge of the middle
of our capital city. So two point seven hectares is
rough estimate of all of the land he owns there now,
which yeah, I think is a pretty substantial property holding.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
And the other thing is that this particular purchase has
topped the list as New Zealand's largest purchase this year.
CBRE recently released its transition monitor and this single sale
comprised about seventy percent of the total value of development
site and land transactions, So a big deal in its
(12:56):
own right. But as you pointed out, Peter Jackson and
fran Welsh have recently purchased at Shalli Bayland, which they've
ruled out for the movie museum, and their plans there
are really to restore it, to become a reserve, to
bring nature back. And if you go out there at
the moment, the Chocolate Fish Cafe has reopened and it's
(13:16):
so popular that it's almost impossible to get a table
if you're there on a sunny Saturday morning, and then
there is a lot of fencing up around the site
as they do replanting, and you know they've selen some
grass and things like that. But you know, Challie Bay
and this property at Lyle Bay significant sites, along with
the other land that the couple owned. Do you think
(13:38):
this is a good thing for locals to have Sir
Petter Jackson investing in the community as much as he
does with these building acquisitions, or a developers councils and
businesses concerned that this person who has accumulated a lot
of whilst through his success can kind of do whatever
he likes with these pretty significant sites.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Whether or not Wellingtonian should be worried about that, I
guess that's what the question is first, But I don't
think it's really up to me to decide whether or
not that's true. But I do see both sides. I
can understand why people would be worried about perhaps the
power that Peter Jackson does have to develop and buy
land and then do what he wants with it. But
we do live in a country that respects private property
(14:22):
and that's kind of has entitledment, I suppose, but I
can understand why people would not want someone to do
that also have so much ability to do that in
one certain place. But then the other thing is, you know,
lots of this stuff. I think, particularly the site that
we're talking about in Laal Bay has sat relatively underdeveloped
for the last twenty years. So if you're measuring whatever
it is that he builds relative to what is there currently,
(14:44):
it seems quite difficult to me that you would have
a worse outcome than what is currently the status quo.
I guess those are the two arguments, and Wellington needs development.
I know lots of people are really pleased about what
is effectively kind of a city sugar daddy.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
I mean, I was chatting to Parrot Dog, which has
a venue out there serving up craft beer, and they
sort of said, look like anybody who wants to invest
money in beautifying areas of Wellington and that regeneration they
were supportive of, and they certainly felt that it was
pretty cool having Sir Peter Jackson attached to Wellington, caring
(15:20):
about it and willing to invest in it. But we
haven't heard from Sir Peter or Dame friend, have we
They haven't publicly confirmed anything. I mean, when will this
speculation turn into something concrete?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Do you think, Well, we know that they own the property,
we just don't know what they're going to do with it.
And my short experience in reporting on Jackson and Walsh's
property holdings, they are not very communicative, so honestly, I
don't know, but I would imagine that this is now
in the hands of architects and eventually they will file
(15:53):
resource consent on whatever they wanting to build. And once
they do that, some nosey journalists will find out they're
intending to do unless someone else talks about it before then.
But yeah, I guess we have to see.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Hey, thanks so much for joining us, Gregor. That's it
for this episode of The Front Page. You can read
more about today's stories and extensive news coverage at inzidherld
dot co dot nzied. The Front Page is produced by
Ethan Sills and sound engineer Patti Fox. I'm Georgina Campbell.
(16:29):
Subscribe to the Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you
get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for another look
behind the headlines.
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