NZ: Luxury NZ golf resort’s owner dies from Covid-19

POSTED ON May 28, 2020 @ 5:40 pm

A wealthy Japanese investor who owned one of New Zealand’s top golf resorts has died from Covid-19.

Hiroshi Hasegawa, who owned luxury resort Terrace Downs in Mid-Canterbury, died in Fukuoka, Japan on April 22. He was aged 59. Hasegawa was given the go-ahead by the Overseas Investment Office in 2012 to buy Cathedral Square Investments, which owned Terrace Downs Resort.

Jonny Hendriksen, who is now the sole director of Cathedral Square Investments, said Hasegawa last visited the course with friends in February. Hasegawa was the sole shareholder and co-director of the company.

Hendriksen was informed about a week before Hasegawa’s death that he had contracted Covid-19 and was in a coma.

“I was shocked, we were praying for him to get through it and then losing him was incredibly sad.

Just a single case of Covid-19 was confirmed in the past week, and 97 percent of all those infected have now recovered.

“We’re all trying to make sense of something which you can’t really make sense of.”

It was too early to say what the future held for Terrace Downs, he said.

“We are in the middle of various discussions, it’s a complex situation … you’ve got an owner passing, you’ve got coronavirus, probably another week away from being able to give more guidance on things.

“It’s obviously hit us completely out of the blue … when you die suddenly like this you don’t potentially have all the contingency plans in place, so it’s come as quite a shock to his family and to us all really.”

Terrace Downs resort remained closed due to Covid-19, however, members and staff are still able to play golf at the course.

SOURCE: Stuff