MORE than 120 hectares of quality Hardie Holdings land at Bellbird Heights, near Cessnock, is on the market.
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Developer Duncan Hardie's Bellbird Heights Estate was approved 10 years ago for a vineyard-themed retirement village with a 475-bed aged-care centre.
There is also the potential for 582 residential lots.
The move comes about a year after a Hardie Holdings-linked company that controlled the Hunter Economic Zone at Kurri Kurri went into receivership.
Hardie Holdings spokesman Jamie Boswell did not return calls from the Newcastle Herald to explain the reasons behind the sale.
Stonebridge Property Group's Lincoln Blackledge, one of two listing agents for the sale, said he was told Hardie Holdings was "refocusing their attentions".
The other listing agent, Alan Jurd of Jurds Real Estate, said the sale might be the result of the cost of development, influenced mainly by state government infrastructure levies and lack of available bank finance.
Expressions of interest for the land close on Wednesday, June 1.
Mr Jurd said a recent assessment valued the land at about $11 million.
Hardie Holdings, through Hunter Valley Homes and Estates, is continuing to sell residential land at Rothbury, Pokolbin, Millfield and Singleton.
The company has often courted controversy.
It withdrew an application to the NSW government for state-significant status for its Sanctuary Villages proposal, south of Cessnock, in August last year.
The proposal covered residential and commercial developments around the environmentally sensitive Ellalong Lagoon, a former Paxton mine site and on Millfield land.
Hardie Holdings called for expressions of interest in the sale of the lagoon and associated forests last year, a move that angered conservation advocates.
Hardie Holdings once owned Huntlee, the massive residential and commercial project near Branxton but sold it to LWP in 2007, reportedly to develop its energy assets.
