Big-box retail plan for park

A proposed $100 million big-box retail development for Queenstown was unveiled yesterday, but developer Alastair Porter said the announcement was not a declaration of war against revamped retail plans for the Five Mile site.

A resource consent application by Foodstuffs South Island Ltd for a Pak'n Save supermarket and fuel station on 6000sq m of land on Shotover Park was formally received by Lakes Environmental this week.

Shotover Park would be "three minutes' travel time" via the planned eastern access road to nearby Remarkables Park Town Centre, and close to a $125 million retail and entertainment complex announced last week for the failed Five Mile development by Auckland developer Tony Gapes.

Mr Porter said yesterday the Porter Group was focusing on making Remarkables Park Town Centre "a quality locals and visitor centre" by taking the DIY, the services and trade retailers to Shotover Park, where it would be better suited for residents and near the existing Shotover and Frankton industrial areas.

When asked about the close timing between the announcements of the Shotover Park strategy and of Mr Gapes' plans, Mr Porter said the Pak'n Save deal had been in negotiation for two years.

"These things take months, if not years, to put together and everything has been in train a lot longer than Tony Gapes' plans have been there.

"We don't time our announcements to what other people are doing ... There's been more than $100,000 invested in this centre already and that doesn't include what's gone into residential and planning.

"Remarkables Park is fully zoned and we've got master plans for it and we're proceeding on, so it really doesn't have anything to do with a much smaller development he's talking about on the other side of the airport."

Mr Porter said Remarkables Park Town Centre had 45 tenants already. The group was working with Mitre 10 to move to a new Mitre 10 Mega alongside Pak'n Save.

"There is reality in the market place. We are making it clear this development is not about to stop because somebody else has come along with an idea for a development," he said.

Mr Gapes could not be contacted for comment.

When asked if there were enough customers to sustain big-box retailers in Remarkables Park, Shotover Park and Five Mile, Mr Porter said Remarkables Park was a comprehensive small- to large-format centre and the Queenstown population was growing.

Remarkables Park was already attracting 2.5 million people a year and two new stores, Whitcoulls and gifts and homeware store Mooch, opened this week. The park planned to expand to 60,000sq m with building consents for a further seven stores.

Mr Porter said he was "100% confident" Foodstuffs would build its supermarket. Assuming resource consent was approved, he expected construction would begin in Shotover Park"this time, 2012".

Construction and staffing would create "substantial employment", he said.