The push is on to develop elderly care services in Wanaka, with the developers of three proposed complexes vying to be the first to establish independent living at stand-alone retirement villages.
A 24-unit retirement village has been confirmed for a Meadowstone site by Presbyterian Services Otago (PSO).
PSO is satisfied demand from potential residents justifies an expansion of elderly stand-alone services in the Queenstown Lakes district.
PSO chief executive Gillian Bremner said architects were working to a proposed timeline and tenders for construction would be called for next year.
Once that was finalised, PSO would contact those who had expressed interest in buying a villa or apartment in the complex, she said.
The proposed Meadowstone Dr development in Wanaka, next to PSO's existing Elmslie House rest-home, was outlined to interested purchasers in September.
A series of public meetings in Wanaka and Dunedin secured the required number of signed expressions of intent forms from potential residents for the PSO board to authorise the retirement village's next stage of development.
"Wanaka residents have spoken and board members of Presbyterian Support Otago have listened: the Wanaka Retirement Village is to go ahead," Mrs Bremner said.
The 24-unit life-care village will comprise 14 two-bedroom villas and 10 one-bedroom apartments with care services offered through Elmslie House.
PSO at present has the edge on its competitors.
However, the country's slumping economy affect construction timelines as developments proceed.
Auckland-based company Stoney Creek Village Ltd applied for resource consent last month to build a 97-unit complex off Mt Aspiring Rd - also in Meadowstone.
The application is to be publicly notified at a yet-to-be arranged hearing date.
Retired Wanaka farmers Peter and Dee Gordon have been planning a lifestyle village accessed from Golf Course Rd and Cardrona Valley Rd for several years, and recently obtained a plan change to enable them to proceed to the next stage of applying for consent and seeking investors.
Future residents at PSO Wanaka Retirement Village would purchase individual occupational right agreements, Mrs Bremner said.
The system of residential occupatancy rights is how the majority of retirement complexes in New Zealand operate under the Retirement Villages Act 2003, she said.
