Living Art may be forced to close

[Chlidonias]

the Living Art Wildlife Park in Tauranga may be forced to close. The owners are trying to subdivide part of the property to sell to pay off their debts and keep the park running.

updates on their website: Living Art Wildlife Park, Tauranga, New Zealand

there's a 25 page thread about it the NZ fish forum: Help Livingart Wildlife Park (Tauranga) - 1 WEEK! - Aquarium Forum New Zealand

$700,000 debt pushes Tauranga Park to brink of collapse.
07.08.2008
by Alison King

The future is uncertain for hundreds of animals at a Tauranga wildlife park and the couple who look after them.

Come next Thursday, the hammer will go down on the Living Art Wildlife Park and its founders Mark and Caroline Paterson will be forced to look for a new home.

The couple have owned the Barkes Corner park since it was a pumice quarry and sawdust pit in 1994. Since then they have ploughed every dollar back into it, rearing animals, tending to rescued birds and giving city folk the chance to interact with nature.

But with increasingly tough times, the Patersons have had to put the park up for auction and hope to have enough left over to find somewhere new to live.

"You haven't got a spare $700,000 in your pocket have you," Mr Paterson asked when the Bay of Plenty Times visited yesterday.
Mrs Paterson said the pair had invested more than money into the business _ the only time off they have had in 14 years was for hospital visits.

"I'll miss 14 years of creating life, then someone will destroy it with a bulldozer," she said through tears.

"It's not just the land, but we've created a home for all these animals. It's so sad. We don't know where we're going to go. These animals are our family and we're responsible for them. I stay up until 1am because I don't want the next day to come."

It takes $3000 a week to run the park, with $1400 going on animal feed and heating for the aquariums and a penguin rehabilitation pond. There are more than 600 animals and birds at the park, ranging in size from small tropical fish through to kunekune and highland cattle.

Mr Paterson said: "We've been eating Weetbix for dinner. The animals come first."

The couple have been trying to work out how to stay open since they started to feel the economic burn in November.

They are part-way through the resource consent to get a zoo licence and keep more exotic species and they are also working on sub-dividing two sections at the back of the site.

The property's current valuation is $1.4 million, but when the subdivisions come through that valuation could tip $3.7m.

The Patersons hope a last-minute offer will save the park, either by taking on the property as a whole or investing the amount of the debt in exchange for the subdivided sections.

Mr Paterson said: "We've exhausted all avenues. Three years ago we were offered $1m for it, but we wanted to build something for Tauranga.

"There's been many tears shed in the last few months. As times have gone on it's got worse and worse. If we end up with nothing we're going to have to home some of the animals."

But his wife was more adamant about their future after the mortgagee auction.

"I'll live in a container as long as I've got my family."

After next Thursday's auction the Patersons will try to keep the park open for as long as possible until the September 12 settlement.

Link: $700,000 debt pushes Tauranga Park to brink of collapse - Bay of Plenty Times - 2008-08-07 09:30:00.0 - localnews

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Wildlife park dream over for Tauranga couple.
Wed, 13 Aug 2008 6:59p.m.

In 1994, Caroline and Mark Paterson bought a piece of land in Tauranga to start a wildlife park.

They did so to give something back to the community - a place for kids and adults to visit.

Today, the park is home to turtles, rare skinks, bearded dragons, waterfowl, pheasants...the list goes on.

Once, up to 200 people a week came to see them but not any more and now a large loan they took out to buy the park has been called in.

So, the park goes up for auction tomorrow, leaving the fate of the 600 animals up in the air.

It wasn't meant to be like this.

The big plan was to turn the park into a recognised wildlife park that would bring in the crowds, and revenue.

But the playground is incomplete, the picnic area empty, and the snack bar, nothing more than a shell.

Link: 3 News > TV Shows > Campbell Live > Stories > Wildlife park dream over for Tauranga couple

Video Links: 3 News > Video > Campbell Live > Wildlife park dream over for Tauranga couple
YouTube - A sad farwell to Living Arts


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11th-hour reprieve city animal park.
15.08.2008
by Alison King
A last-minute stay of execution has meant a Tauranga wildlife park can look a little further into the future.

Just 90 minutes before Living Art Wildlife Park was due to go under the hammer, owners Mark and Caroline Paterson received news they had four more weeks to pay back a $250,000 loan.

It took several hours of conference calls and the help of a good friend to make sure the park would survive a bit longer.

"It was like a miracle," Mr Paterson said yesterday.

"I was up until 4am putting together our case and just hoping. I was dreading the conference call _ I've never done anything like that before."

The conference call yesterday was between a High Court judge and lawyers for a finance firm calling in the $250,000 loan. The couple also owe another firm $450,000 but that loan isn't being called in.

"The judge saw part of my point of view and said we needed to put some money forward to show good faith."

Mr Paterson said he had had no idea where to go to find the money _ $20,000 _ but a friend came through at the last minute with an offer.

"It was an immense relief. I can't believe how nice some people are in this world. This guy helping me out was mind-blowing."

The couple hope a subdivision at the back of the property will come through before the loan is due. They said they were open to offers before the paperwork was finished, just to be secure in the knowledge the park was safe.

Since the Bay of Plenty Times put the Patersons' plight in the spotlight, the couple said they had been overwhelmed with the generosity of so many people.

One couple, who Mr Paterson said looked as if they had nothing to spare, brought around a food parcel. They have taken some of their animals to other farms for grazing and Sanitarium gifted more Weet-Bix after hearing the couple were eating it for dinner.

Within hours of setting up a trust fund in place to look after the animals' welfare, a $5000 donation had been received.

The trust fund is at National Bank account number 06-0491-0064112-25.

Link: 11th-hour reprieve city animal park - Bay of Plenty Times - 2008-08-15 09:00:00.0 - localnews

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Tauranga wildlife park gets second chance.
Fri, 15 Aug 2008
News: National

A Tauranga property housing a wildlife park has been withdrawn from a forced auction after its owners were given extra time to try and repay debt.

The Living Art Wildlife Park, owned by Mark and Caroline Paterson and home to hundreds of animals and plenty of debt, was to go under the hammer yesterday.

But with financiers breathing down their neck, Mr Paterson today said the couple had won a High Court injunction on the sale going ahead.

They now have a one-month stay of execution to allow them to pursue a sub-division development on their property and raise money.

Mr Paterson said publicity in the local Bay of Plenty Times about the couple's plight had sparked plenty of positive reaction and the couple hoped to raise enough money to put a big dent in the mortgage.

They have also had someone donate money to set up a charitable trust and bank account so people could donate money towards a goal of turning the park into a zoo.

"We have to work hard in the next month to get everything in place to make it happen," Mr Paterson told NZPA.

He said the park was initially set up with the intention of creating a zoo for Tauranga, along with being a place where injured or unwanted animals could go.

But it became a financial struggle after a while and debt got worse when the couple had to go to finance companies rather than banks to keep the place running.

A miserable winter and tough economic times, including finance industry woes, had inflamed the situation.

Link: Tauranga wildlife park gets second chance | Otago Daily Times Online

 

[NZ Jeremy]

That will be sad... I know they do some some good stuff and have some excellent animals...

 

[zooman]

Hi Chlidonias, appreciate your time and effort to make this post.

 

[Living Art]

Living art safe for the next two years

Thank you, Chlidonias, for bringing the plight of our Park to the attention of ZooBeat Forum.

You will be pleased to know that the Park has secured a loan and is safe for the next two years. You can read the full story of the turmoil we have been through over the last month on the What's New page on our website:
Living Art Wildlife Park

Kind Regards
Karolyn Timarkos
Living Art

 

[NZ Jeremy]

Great news... Good luck..!