This particular Project involving the Australian SDA Church goes back to 2011 and further. But since then the SPD has not provided Church Members nor Pastors on the financial details of the Church’s involvement and what monies have been lost or otherwise to our Church in spite of numerous inquiries made to the SPD Leadership over the years.
Keith Johnson—who is the principle of the Johnson Property Group—negotiated with the SPD on the development of a reasonable portion of the Avondale Estate Land (land originally purchased by Mrs. White when she was in Australia). The main negotiator for the SPD was Rod Brady who was and still is the SPD Treasurer.
Church Members and Pastors require transparency and accountability on this Project to be fully and openly informed by SPD Leadership. Our Church is now facing the biggest financial crisis of our lifetime due to the Coronavirus, so we need answers.
Marina Plan for Lake Macquarie
Kathryn House Reporter
Nov 9, 2006
One of the largest marinas in NSW could be built at Lake Macquarie north of Sydney as part of a proposed $400 million residential and tourism development.
Keith Johnson's private Johnson Property Group wants to establish a 200-berth marina, conference centre and 145 holiday apartments in the lakefront suburb of Morisset Park next to a new housing subdivision.
It would be the latest endeavour for Johnson Property, a significant private developer with $3.5 billion in projects throughout NSW in the Hunter, Hawkesbury, Lake Macquarie and Illawarra regions.
One is a controversial residential development at Pitt Town, north of Sydney, which recently hit the headlines after Johnson Property sued Sydney broadcaster Ray Hadley and 2GB for his three-year, on-air campaign against the project.
Yesterday, Mr Johnson confirmed that the group was claiming $138 million in damages through the court action, which is due to be heard later this month.
The Lake Macquarie project is also likely to attract some level of controversy.
Reference: Newcastle Herald Newspaper
Adventists Pour $70M into Developer
Gretchen Friemann Reporter
May 26, 2011
Australia’s Seventh Day Adventist Church has bankrolled one of the biggest residential developers in NSW, the Johnson Property Group, to the tune of $70 million.
The hefty loan is detailed in a creditors report compiled by the voluntary administrators to JPG, who took over the reins of the business last month as it foundered in a debt pile of close to $150 million.
After the Seventh Day Adventists, Westpac subsidiary St George Bank is listed as the developer’s second-largest lender with $32 million in unpaid loans outstanding.
Keith Johnson, who founded JPG in 1990, has spent the past two decades assembling a vast land bank and has planning approval for the construction of more than 10,000 homes on the outskirts of Sydney and in the Hunter Valley region.
The developer, who has contributed large sums of money to both political parties, hopes to emerge from administration next week.
But his future depends on the continued support of the Seventh Day Adventists, a religious movement that began in the United States in the mid-19th century now claims 15 million members worldwide.
Ten years ago Johnson formed a partnership with the Church to develop its land at North Cooranbong, south of Newcastle, with a master-plan community project for 2500 homes aimed at the first-time buyer market.
The profits from the scheme were intended to be channelled back into the Seventh Day Adventists’ local tertiary institution, Avondale College.
But interminable planning delays, high development levies and the onslaught of the credit crunch, held up construction work and the land has effectively been mothballed until Mr Johnson resolves his considerable financial problems.
Next Tuesday unsecured creditors, owed about $16 million, will vote on whether to accept 4¢ in the dollar for their loans as part of a deed of company arrangement.
The Seventh Day Adventists are expected to back the proposal, as are a number of JPG’s other secured lenders, including the boutique financier, Greshams, and the Bank of New York Trust.
In the report, administrators deVries Tayeh, said the global financial crisis caused the value of Johnson’s land bank, which includes a $200 million marina development at Lake Macquarie, to plummet by a staggering $130 million.
At the height of the property boom the greenfield development land was worth $196.9 million.
However, a recent valuation puts that figure at just $66.8 million.
The report singled out the state government’s failure to fund infrastructure as one reason behind the delays “on a number of sites".
Reference: Financial Review Newspaper
Keith Johnson, who is the principle of the Johnson Property Group.
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AussieMouse