About 12 people attended a meeting on Wednesday evening to firm up interest in taking over some of the buildings at the school site.
Earlier this year, Wanaka artists Christy Rolfe and Heather Kerr - operating as Wanaka Community Creative Spaces - proposed establishing a temporary home for artists, crafts people and other non-commercial activities at the site, while the Ministry of Education worked through the standard government property disposal process.
Local churches, the Wanaka Playgroup, a wood-turners group and music teachers were represented at the meeting, alongside council and community board members. Community Networks representatives also attended and lent their support to the initiative.
Mrs Rolfe and Mrs Kerr said they had invested enough time into getting the project off the ground and asked for another group to pick it up.
The women said Ministry of Education property contractor Darroch Ltd had stipulated a "single entity" assume responsibility for the site's management and the Wanaka Arts Centre Trust was suggested as a possibility.
The pair ran through the projected costs associated with managing the vacated school site.
They had been provided with two vastly different insurance quotes for the site - one around $20,000, the other around $10,000 - so clarification was needed, they said.
Other significant annual outgoings were a $5000 line charge for power and nearly $6000 in rates.
Mrs Kerr said tenants would be offered "reasonable rates" in line with the Wanaka Arts Centre costs and, with just 50% usage of the eight studios, nine classrooms, workshop and seminar rooms, estimated rental returns were around $18,000.
Darroch Ltd had indicated it would be another six to nine months before the land would be offered for sale on the open market.
It would not commit to a minimum lease term, but "probably a two to three-year time frame from then would be realistic" for any new owner to get plans and consents in place for developing the site, Mrs Kerr said.
The proposed new art gallery at the existing Wanaka Arts Centre site was also several years away, so the school would provide an ideal interim space, the women said.
Mrs Rolfe and Mrs Kerr plan to meet interested groups on site, negotiate rentals and find a managing body for the project before putting a formal proposal to Darroch Ltd.
