Queenstown Lakes Mayor Clive Geddes said yesterday the best-case scenario for the Kawarau Falls Station development was that stage 1 would be finished, but he held no hope for the second and final stage.
He said if the project finished this year instead of late 2011, as planned, it would leave nearly 500 builders looking for work and have "serious consequences" for Queenstown.
"We are looking at two years earlier than anticipated with no major projects currently planned or consented," he said.
"I hope the bank will adopt a common sense approach and complete stage 1. It would be crazy to leave a project unfinished when there's only five months left."
Mr Geddes hoped businesses with projects in the pipeline could bring them forward and absorb "spare capacity" in the construction industry.
The sudden availability of a large number of construction workers would lower costs, he said.
The council was proposing to build staff accommodation and council offices in its draft long-term council community plan but Mr Geddes said having 500 construction workers' jobs in doubt "shed a different light" on the proposal and councillors could look more favourably on the proposal than in the past.
"While I don't want to prejudice councillors' deliberations on submissions received. . . we clearly have a social and economic responsibility towards maintaining a viable construction sector in Queenstown ," he said.
