Cromwell prebuild for alpine villas

One of three houses set to be built at Jacks Point. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
One of three houses set to be built at Jacks Point. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
A Swiss-backed factory in Cromwell and some retail investors from around the country have come together to build houses at Jacks Point, near Queenstown.

Co-founder and Black Robin Equity director Jasmine Yao said the Kerr Ritchie-designed homes were expected to be finished by the middle of next year.

The three-bedroom homes have a master en suite and two other bathrooms, and feature a separate, self-contained loft above the garage.

The foundation slabs for the homes are expected to be finished this week.

After that, Hector Egger New Zealand will transport the components from its Cromwell factory to the site by truck and start putting the house together.

The first home has already been pre-sold at $2.75million.

Earlier this year in a tightening market for property developers, Black Robin turned to the Catalist Public Market for the Jacks Point project.

That led to 24 retail and wholesale investors putting more than $1million into the project that Black Robin calls McKenzie’s Shute.

Catalist Markets chief executive Colin Magee said it was an important milestone for McKenzie’s Shute, Catalist and New Zealand capital markets.

"This is the first development project ever financed through New Zealand’s Stock Exchange for growth businesses," Mr Magee said.

McKenzie’s Shute was still accepting investment through Catalist.

Ms Yao said listing on Catalist meant meeting a higher level of disclosure of all material information and it had brought liquidity into what was a traditionally illiquid investment — one that cannot be rapidly converted into cash.

Securing the construction loan enabled the completion of the slab works and would pay for the build.

Hector Egger NZ director Tristan Franklin said

the company had been busy because it had a book of work through to the end of next year.

The company is a joint venture between Swiss company Hector Egger Holzbau AG and New Zealand partners Stephan Mausli and Mr Franklin.

Hector Egger Holzbau AG is a leading European manufacturer with 20 years’ experience in off-site prefabrication of timber buildings and structures.

The Cromwell-based operation is based on a manufacturing methodology its Swiss partners have developed. Its new factory layout is a copy of its largest Swiss factory, and it imported its Swiss machinery.

Mr Franklin said the company had a growing number of architecturally designed projects through the country.

"In the initial design process we build a 3D model so we can detail every aspect of the project. Every piece of timber, every staple and every screw are included in the model so we can resolve all the connections before prefabrication," he said.

"There are also sustainable benefits to our process. In the factory, we use 12m lengths of timber for all our framing, because the software can optimise the cutting and therefore minimise the amount of timber going to waste.

"We use locally sourced LVL-engineered [laminated veneer lumber] timber products supplied directly from the manufacturer and all our timber is sustainably grown in New Zealand."