Developers behind a swag of major Queenstown construction projects are gearing up to restart them as soon as the Covid-19 lockdown is lifted.
Sitting on projects with a combined cost of more than half a billion dollars, they are on tenterhooks for today’s expected announcement on what "safe" economic activity will consist of should the country move from response level four to three next Wednesday.
The most high-profile project is the 237-room Holiday Inn Express hotel, in Stanley St, at the entrance to the resort’s CBD.
Pro-invest Group managing director Tim Sherlock said it would be "business as usual" for the hotel — about 85% complete — which was expected to open in July or August.
Tourism giant Skyline Enterprises, which began a $26 million redevelopment of O’Connells shopping centre in Camp St in February, had also been poised to begin the long-planned redevelopment of its gondola complex.
Chief executive Geoff McDonald said it wanted both projects to continue, but was waiting on a response to an application to the Government’s infrastructure support programme.
The precise form of support and whether it would qualify for it were yet to be seen, but there was a "strong case for projects that employ a lot of people" in the resort.
Groundwork on a five-storey car park building had been about to start, but the company was reviewing the phasing of the whole gondola redevelopment, Mr McDonald said.
One option was to complete the new gondola system and part of the upper complex earlier in the project than initially planned.
"If we get those operations up and running, hopefully we can start getting more people employed up there more quickly."
The developer behind another town centre project, Aucklander Tony Gapes, said it would be "full steam ahead" for The Alex Apartments in Hallenstein St.
After speaking to sub-contractors this week, he was gearing up to resume construction next Thursday.
He expected the 52 two- and three-bedroom apartments, and six retail spaces, to be completed by September.
Safari Group director Robert Neil said work on its LQ by Wyndham Kawarau River hotel, in Remarkables Park, was ready to restart next Thursday.
Although construction of the 91 hotel and 96 residential apartments had been well ahead of schedule, his "gut feeling" was they would be delayed by about two months until next February.
New Ground Capital managing director Roy Thompson said it was "itching to get going again" on the first stage of its Toro Apartments complex below the Remarkables Park town centre.
The first of three planned high-rises had been due for completion in November, and he remained optimistic it would be completed by the end of the year.
The second stage remained "up in the air".
"Funding for projects that haven’t started yet will be much more difficult going forward."
QLong Investments general manager assistant Luke Wang said work on its 182-room Holiday Inn Queenstown, also in Remarkables Park, would restart as soon as allowed, and it was negotiating a revised completion date with its main contractor.
