Northland hapu Te Uri o Hau is selling a third of its coastal land north of Auckland to an American financier to be developed as a golf course.
The hapu has been trying for the last nine years to develop pine forest it received at Te Arai as part of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement.
It has now negotiated to sell 230 hectares to Los Angeles financier and golf enthusiast Ric Kayne and wife Suzanne.
Te Uri o Hau says the Kaynes will build a championship private links course and set up a trust to protect endangered shore birds including the fairy tern and dotterel that nest on nearby Te Arai beach.
The hapu says the sale has the approval of the Overseas Investment Office, subject to conditions that include extensive replanting of the land and dunes with native species.
Te Uri o Hau has consent for 45 residential lots in the remaining Te Arai forest. It says the golf course will boost the local economy by more than $3 million a year and create 30 jobs.
Ric Kayne says he will be investing about $20 million in the course designed by American architect Tom Doak.
Mr Kayne says he first fell in love with the area 20 years ago when a friend took him to nearby Pakiri beach and has always wanted to build a golf course to equal the best in the world.
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