Queenstown's council will decide this week whether $26.7million of external funding should be ''locked in'' before the resort's planned convention centre goes further.
Last year the Queenstown Lakes District Council resolved to proceed with the $58.1million convention centre at the Lakeview site, above the central business district, with several conditions. One was that a significant amount of outside funding would be secured.
In a report to the council, to be discussed at tomorrow's full meeting in Queenstown, strategic projects and support manager Paul Speedy recommended the council agree ''market engagement and private sector negotiations'' for the development should not be progressed until there was sufficient certainty regarding ''the progression or otherwise'' of the convention centre project.
That was dependent on securing the external funding required to meet the shortfall.
Mr Speedy's report said the rating model for the convention centre provided for a $31.4 million contribution from the ratepayer.
In a statement, Mayor Vanessa van Uden said most of that would come from hotels and commercial properties in the CBD.
Without external support, the Lakeview development could proceed only as a standalone project - without a convention centre - as it would provide lower economic returns, she said.
Mr Speedy said the council had put forward a funding proposal to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) in January but ''no formal response has been received and no provision for funding the [convention centre] project was included within the budget announcement of May 2015''.
Ms van Uden says the council has not yet put a dollar figure on that request, but is ''asking for the support'' of the Government.
Mr Speedy's report said indications from MBIE were that it first required the council to adopt the rating model within the 10-year plan and update the business case for Government funding.
It also had to outline all existing and potential funding sources before the Government would commit any funds to the project.
Mr Speedy said funding applications either had been made or were planned to the Central Lakes Trust, the Community Trust of Southland, the Lotteries Grants Board and the Tourism Growth Partnership, a fund that invests in projects to grow the tourism sector and is administered by MBIE.
While the proposed construction timeline for the facility required funding to be provided within the 2018-19 financial year, the council would require a ''level of funding certainty'' by June next year to meet key milestone dates, he said.
''The [convention centre] is considered an `anchor' project with all three economic impact reports consistently indicating a demonstrably greater economic return from a convention centre relative to the scale of investment.
''If there is a commitment for a [convention centre] at Lakeview, then any development agreement (with a private sector partner) on the Lakeview land will need to retain the option for [it] to be delivered.
''It is, therefore, recommended that further market engagement regarding the Lakeview development land be deferred until the alternative funding contributions outlined ... have been confirmed or not.''
Mr Speedy said deferring the progression of the development until there was ''satisfactory certainty as to the future of [the convention centre]'' would mitigate the risk of developers not entering into preliminary discussions with the council because of project uncertainty, or the potential returns from the development being diminished.
At a Queenstown Chamber of Commerce lunch, held as part of this year's Queenstown Winter Festival, Prime Minister John Key said the Government ''will put in money'' for the convention centre.
