Tauranga based developer Carrus Corporation is putting its hand up to discuss taking over The Lakes development, which is in receivership.

No offer has been made yet, says Carrus director Paul Adams.

The Lakes.

'Certainly we are interested as developers and would be in a position to negotiate a purchase, so it's really a matter of the receivers making contact,” says Paul.

'They know we are in town – it's pretty obvious that it would be better to deal with a Tauranga developer if that's possible, so we are putting our hand up to be talked to.

'The issue really is it has just gone into receivership, and they won't be talking to people like me immediately.

'They need to go and do their own assessment; there's no use me trying to rush them on that.”

Receiver Grant Graham at KordaMentha expects that process to take about two weeks.

They were called in by the Bank of Scotland, which is understood to be owed about $80 million, plus another $20 million in penalties.

Tauranga's largest residential development was intended to produce 2100 sections over 10 years. The 370 sections in stage one have sold, and the developer, Grasshopper Farms, is currently selling the 250 section stage two. Services were being installed for the 1480 section stage three prior to the receivership.

Overall, The Lakes development between State Highway 29 and State Highway 36 at Tauriko is expected to produce 15-20 lots per hectare under the SmartGrowth policy that is encouraging high density developments.

'It's a SmartGrowth strategy that was implemented and it's proving in my view to be flawed,” says Paul.

'That in turn will impact on the speed of development of Tauranga.

'People don't necessarily want that kind of home to live in, certainly in Tauranga that's proving to be the case.

'They prefer to pay for a larger section so that they can have their own play areas and somewhere for the kids to play, rather than requiring them to have to take them to a park somewhere to do the same.”