The pair are excited at the prospect of building New Zealand's first alpine skifield gondola, which will be capable of carrying up to 400 people at a time, to and from their twin Pisa Range skifields, Snow Park and Snow Farm.
The long-anticipated decision to approve the 3.88km gondola is also set to spark a further $120 million investment in Queenstown Lakes' newest downhill ski area - the first in two decades.
The Lees also intend to build a resort on 300ha of land, south of the Snow Park facility and located above the Roaring Meg River, capable of catering for up to 200,000 skiers and snowboarders each season.
The Roaring Meg resort would include up to five chairlifts and on-site accommodation for up to 2000 people, John Lee said.
The area would also be developed for downhill and cross-country mountain bike trails, plus walking tracks, creating a year-round mountain resort destination, he said.
Gondola parent company, One Black Merino director and Snow Park operations manager Sam Lee said negotiations had already taken place with "potentially significant" United States-based investors.
"Everything we have spoken to investors about has hinged on getting approval. Now we have that, interest in this development is going to rocket," he told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
The Lees were presented with the 84-page gondola decision, prepared by Queenstown Lakes commissioners Jane Taylor and Christine Kelly, yesterday afternoon.
In the decision, Mrs Taylor said the gondola had considerable positive effects - primarily economic - which "on balance" provided "sufficient environmental compensation" to outweigh the adverse landscape and visual effects of the proposal.
Economic justification for the gondola was paramount in the analysis of environmental compensation.
Without evidence of the economic benefits to the wider community, there was nothing to distinguish the application from one for "largely private use".
The gondola would be a potentially important factor in the long-term viability and expansion of the limited resource of the Waiorau Ski Area sub-zone - one of the few alpine areas available to be developed sustainably for recreational activities, Mrs Taylor said.
"The gondola promotes the sustainable management of the natural and physical resources of this area for future generations," she said in her decision.
John Lee said the gondola application's long consent process had cost more than half a million dollars and frequent changes and delays in the release of a decision had caused the family "immense frustration and uncertainty".
Once finance was confirmed, construction of the gondola would begin "within the next two years", Mr Lee expected.
Upper Clutha Environmental Society (UCES) president Julian Haworth said the society remained opposed to the gondola, but was unlikely to appeal the commissioners' decision.
The UCES had limited resources and would focus on appealing the Parkins Bay golf resort, near Glendhu Bay, on Lke Wanaka.
"It's very difficult for us to be involved in two appeals at once," he said.
While the commissioners agreed with many of the submissions made by Mr Haworth and the UCES during the consent process, they differed on how the gondola could be considered an appropriate development in the Cardrona Valley.
Given the existing degree of modification, the emerging character of Cardrona as an alpine village, and the expectation skifield activities would be consolidated and expanded in the existing ski area sub-zones, the commissioners were satisfied the overall gondola proposal outweighed adverse landscape effects.
