Milestone
Company History in New Zealand

Investment in Forestry in Northland, New Zealand

July 2003 - John Chung established Prime Resources Company LTD (PRC) and invested in the forestry business in NZ.

Investment in Sawmill in Gisborne

October 2003 – PRC had taken over one of the biggest Sawmill Company on the East Coast; the sawmilling company was under receivership due to financial difficulties.

2004 – PRC had put further investment, carried out the business efficiently, and expanded the export market to the USA; the sawmilling business turned into a profitable business in mid-2004. (see the photos below show the operation of sawmilling in Gisborne)

November 2004 – PRC received an offer from a big forestry company that wished to take over our Sawmilling Company in Gisborne. PRC accepted the offer and sold the Sawmilling Company in early 2005.

Subdivision development in Puhoi, Auckland

Early 2005 – PRC purchased 1,860 ha of forestry blocks adjacent to Puhoi and Maurangi West from Cater Holt Harvey Ltd.

2005 – 2007 – PRC managed the forestry blocks as regular forest operations in earlier stages, including harvesting trees and replanting.

2008 - 2010 – PRC had to set a new strategy that changed the land use from forestry business to lifestyle residential development to gain best outcome from the 1,860 Ha land use, as the site is close to Auckland City, with the motorway extension to the Puhoi area.

PRC proposed and discussed with Auckland Council (including Rodney District Council at the time) to designate the Puhoi forestry site to be nominated as a Special Zone where PRC could have an entitlement to create a rural lifestyle lot provided that the land owner established minimum 10 ha of native bush with protection and vested the area for conservation permanently per one lot (1 ha size) creation. As a result, Auckland Council agreed to designate the Puhoi forestry site as per PRC’s proposed plan. As a consequence, the Puhoi forestry site was designated as a Special Zone provided that the owner of the land was able to subdivide a maximum of 166 rural lifestyle lots provided that 1,660 ha forestry land was converted with native bush establishment (with regeneration of native trees) and vested the area for conservation permanently.

Mid-2010 – A Chinese businessman offered to purchase the whole Puhoi forestry site with the entitlement of 166 lifestyle subdivision lots, subject to obtaining Resource Consent. PRC accepted the offer to sell the 1,860 ha Puhoi forestry site with the Special Zone entitlement agreement with the Council. Since then, the new motorway extension to Warkworth has been planned across the Puhoi forestry site.

2013 - 2020 - Lifestyle residential development at Karaka, South Auckland

PRC was carrying out 3 lifestyle developments in Karaka, Auckland, for lifestyle living with sustainable farming, subject to environmental enhancement, which requires enhancement of natural features, including native restoration planting to get an entitlement of subdivisions as below.

Lifestyle development 1: 65 ha of land was developed for lifestyle living at Batty Road, Karaka, Auckland:

65 Ha of land was developed, including enhancement of the environment, native planting and restoration of the area to comply with the consent conditions. The Council issued seven new titles in 2015. PRC completed the development with 7 new lifestyle properties and sold all of them.

Lifestyle development 2: 50 ha of land was developed for lifestyle properties at Batty Road, Karaka, Auckland, and all of them were sold.

Lifestyle development 3: 27 ha of land was developed for lifestyle properties at Liwood Road, Karaka, Auckland, and all of them were sold.