Sir Peter Jackson. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The “gossip stars have aligned” in Wellington over what has been announced as this year’s biggest land deal.
Interests associated with The Lord of the Rings film-maker Sir Peter Jackson and his partner Dame Fran Walsh have spent $105 million buying a large piece of land near the city’s airport in Lyall Bay
There are rumours it could be the new site for a long-planned movie museum.
BusinessDesk markets reporter Gregor Thompson told The Front Page the deal has sparked interest because Wellingtonians were obsessed with development and Jackson and Walsh were high-profile but private people so, whatever they did garnered speculation.
Thompson first got wind of the deal from a friend who was worried the future of their local gym might be in jeopardy because the land it operates on had been sold to Jackson.
Thompson hit the phones but no one wanted to talk, including Wellington Airport, Infratil, real estate agents, Primeproperty Group, Wellington City Council, or Jackson’s Wingnut Films.
He wrote a story under the headline “The ‘huge, huge’ Wellington property deal no one is talking about” and questioned whether Jackson could be the new owner.
A couple of weeks later, property records confirmed the titles on the block were now owned by LB HC, standing for Lyall Bay Holding Company. Jackson and Walsh are the only directors of LB HC.
Thompson said that although Jackson and Walsh have not confirmed this is the new site of their movie museum, there were some strong indications it could be.
“People have always known that Jackson wanted to build a museum, the question really was where. There’s the big Shelly Bay site in the eastern suburbs which they recently ruled out that the museum was going to be there.”
Thompson also spoke to Wellington City Councillor Tim Brownm who is the former chairman of Wellington Airport.
“When he was with the airport, they were in talks for a long time about a potential museum. There was at one stage a plan to build it on top of where the carpark is, I’m told, and then another plan was to build it at the site that Sir Peter Jackson has just bought.”
Listen to the full episode to hear more from Gregor Thompson about the significance of the addition to Jackson and Walsh’s already large property portfolio and when final plans could be confirmed.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The episode is presented by Georgina Campbell, a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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