Alluvial Windsor district turf, dairy and polo farms of Achilles 'Big Al' Constantinidis listed for receivership sale
The alluvial Windsor district turf, dairy and polo farms - that total 282 hectares - of the failed corporate companies associated with Achilles "Big Al" Constantinidis have been listed for receivership sale.
It follows four court cases over recent years in which the receiver, David Clout sought to affirm the validity of the appointment of receivership, then who was entitled to exercise water licence rights and then more recently proceedings to secure vacant possession.
The farms are set to sell from $2.4 million upwards, starting with a 58-hectare holding comprising seven lots.
The latest holding, a 127-hectare Richmond lot, has $4 million-plus expectations.
A 100-hectare turf farm (pictured above) at Windsor has $5 million-plus hopes.
Tender offers are due August 8 through David Nolan at Webster Nolan Rural Real Estate.
The land cost $21 million plus in 2007. Mark McIvor's Queensland-based lender, Equititrust, has a mortgage over the land and is believed to be owed $22 million plus, having been involved as quasi joint venturers with Constantinidis.
The NSW Office of State Revenue had launched a criminal prosecution against Constantinidis, where he was convicted and fined in February 2011 for failing to pay more than $720,715 in stamp duty on the purchases, but the conviction was in early 2012 quashed and he was acquitted, with the state government department paying the costs of the solicitors for Constantinidis, Beazley Singleton Lawyers.
Much of the land, 63 kilometres from Sydney, is on the Richmond Lowlands overlooking the Hawkesbury River and includes some of the best areas for turf farms and agriculture.
The land is flood-affected, and the zoning prohibits construction on large parts of it. A request for rezoning was made in October 2009 with a view to parts of the land being rezoned “Housing Zone” pursuant to a new local environmental plan, but understood not to have been approved.
In the wider Windsor area there are 17 polo fields.
Constantinidis, a former accountant, was a consultant to the Bulldogs during the Liverpool rugby league Oasis development.
