The half-finished apartment building in Auckland's Epsom has been left derelict for the past five years. Photo: RNZ / Melanie Earley
A year after a troubled, half-finished Auckland apartment block found a new owner, neighbouring businesses are still waiting for the building to be finished - or knocked down.
The Epsom Central Apartments Project halted five years ago, after Auckland Council found it had not complied with building consent.
The original partnership, Epsom Central Apartments LP, was put into receivership in 2022, and purchased by Xiao Liu, the director of a company named Reeheng Limited, in September 2023.
Since then, community members and business owners have said there has been an air of mystery around what will happen to the building, which at one point was filled with rats and squatters.
Greenwoods Corner Epsom Business Association president Dominique Bonn described the multi-storey building as a "blight on the Epsom landscape".
It was covered in graffiti and "entombed" in scaffolding.
"It's an eyesore - certainly not something we welcome in the area. We're very keen to see something built to conclusion, but we have no real gauge on what's going to happen.
"It's been a real mystery for everyone in the area."
The Manukau Road footpath in front of the Epsom apartment block. Photo: RNZ / Melanie Earley
Forrest Tan, who owns Just Laptops directly beside the apartment block, said work has been happening on the site - but only to fix ageing scaffolding and unsafe pieces of metal which had started falling from the building earlier this year.
"It's been a nightmare since 2019 - when it sold we tried to build up friendly communication with the new owner so I could understand their plan, but they only want to speak through lawyers."
In May this year, Tan said steel bars fell off the building, which has scaffolding overhanging into Tan's carpark, and skewered one of his workers' cars.
Fire crews were called and WorkSafe became involved. Tan's shop had to be closed for three months until metal shuttering that was a further fall risk could be removed.
An email sent to Tan on 9 August, seen by RNZ, confirmed Henderson Demolition was hired to carry out work to make the building safe, including removing ageing metal shuttering that posed a health and safety fall risk to the surrounding area.
This side of the building is right next to Forrest Tan's Just Laptops business. Photo: RNZ / Melanie Earley
"We've been open again for two weeks now - no compensation or apology for all the money we've lost and there's still scaffolding over the driveway and little pieces of wood and metal I worry might fall off," Tan said.
Auckland Council confirmed it was aware of the May incident and said council compliance staff supported WorkSafe in its investigation into the building.
"We understand action to mitigate the risk has been taken by the owners," a spokesperson said.
Yvonne Sanders, the owner of Yvonne Sanders Antiques on the other side of the apartment block, said the derelict state of the building had led to rats coming into her shop.
"We even had one worker who had a rat crawl across her leg!"
Sanders has owned the shop for 50 years, and said in the last few years it had been broken into three times.
She said one thief climbed the building next door to gain access to her roof.
"I think the building should be demolished right away so we can move forward. I'd like to see it leveled down to the first floor so another developer can come and finish the task."
Three construction workers could be seen on the roof of the Epsom building earlier this week. Photo: RNZ / Melanie Earley
A council spokesperson said their understanding was Reeheng Ltd intended to remove the unconsented works and rebuild in line with the original building consent.
Two improvement notices to the site owner had been issued this year, a WorkSafe spokesperson confirmed.
The first required a safety plan to be put in place before construction/demolition work continued, which was done before the 28 May deadline.
A further improvement notice required the site owner to make sure the construction was structurally safe.
That notice must be complied with by 22 September, the spokesperson said.
Tan said he "doesn't care what they do", as long as the scaffolding closest to his property was removed and nothing more fell into his driveway.
Liu did not respond to a request for comment.
