Five Mile refill likely; new owner has smaller plans

A large part of the 350,000cu m of earth excavated from the Five Mile "hole in the ground" in Frankton might be replaced, as the new owner is planning a reduced development.

Auckland developer Tony Gapes' company, Queenstown Gateway Ltd, bought stage 1 of the Five Mile development in November 2009.

Stage 1 is a 7.7ha slice of the total 31ha Five Mile site near Queenstown Airport, and includes the 2.4ha excavated area.

The original plans for the site were developed by Five Mile Holdings Ltd, headed by Christchurch entrepreneur Dave Henderson, and proposed a $2 billion township to house 10,000 people along with retail and commercial developments.

Mr Gapes said he is planning a much smaller and less dense development on the site, and said it might involve refilling the large hole.

"After all that work was done to dig out the site, it might seem odd to just fill it up again. But with the much smaller scale of development we are now planning for the site, we will only be needing up to 400 underground car parks, which will take up less than half the space dug out," Mr Gapes said.

"If anyone has suggestions for alternative use for such a huge underground site, I would be happy to hear them," he said.

The company contracted to do the excavation for Mr Henderson's company was Christchurch-based March Construction. Owner Buzz March said he owns the excavated soil, much of which has been placed on the adjacent 23ha Five Mile site.

"My contract was very clear in that regard. We have at least three other construction sites where we could use this fill," he said.

"I would be more than happy to talk to Queenstown Gateway to negotiate a deal, if they wish to reuse some of this earth to refill the site," Mr March said.

Mr Gapes said he had already had "initial talks" with Guy March, son of Buzz March, about the fill.

"Nothing has been decided on yet, but I expect to negotiate with the company about a solution, which might involve re-using the fill," Mr Gapes said.

While the plans for the future of Five Mile are not yet finalised, Mr Gapes told the Otago Daily Times it would definitely be a mixed-use development with both residential dwellings and a retail section.

"We have an overall concept plan I am quite happy with, but once the architects have completed the plans, we first need approval from the council's urban design panel before we can proceed," he said.

Two architects have been appointed to the project: Peter Zillman from the Buchan Group, known for projects such as the Palms shopping centre in Christchurch, and Simon Adnitt from Walker Architects' Queenstown office. Further contractors have not yet been chosen.

"It is still very early days, and we will not be considering which building contractors to use until the final concept plans have been decided on," Mr Gapes said.

- henrietta.kjaer@odt.co.nz