Interest in Queenstown central business district leasing space has jumped, at the expense of interest in the resort's industrial areas, a Queenstown realtor says.
Locations Real Estate leasing specialist Marty Barwood yesterday told the Queenstown Times it was hard to tell about the overall leasing picture, but said town itself was attracting a lot of attention.
"I've had to come in even on my weekend to show people premises for a new restaurant and on Monday, to show a guy from Auckland some rental space worth more than $1000 a metre."
"There's still a lot of interest downtown, but it's pretty quiet for the industrial area .. with everything that was winter, there was a lot of downsizing and a few leases that have cropped up out in Glenda Dr," Mr Barwood said.
Otherwise, he thought the period since winter had been "pretty strong" for the resort, but whether the Queenstown market had recovered would not be clear until the end of summer.
"At the moment I'm hearing some pretty good things around town, but we'll have to wait and see."
He said Revolver's old premises remained untouched due to its size and would require someone to "think outside the square for a tenant".
Likewise, the Memorial St space which held the Pulse Fitness gym until late 2010 remains unused and Mr Barwood thought it unlikely it would hold another gym of that size.
"I think the future of that place is that it will be cut up for offices .. or maybe a partial area as an upstairs restaurant, as rentals creep up for the ground-floor restaurants."
