Wanaka retirement village on track

Wanaka's new retirement village is to be built on vacant land (centre) alongside Presbyterian...
Wanaka's new retirement village is to be built on vacant land (centre) alongside Presbyterian Support Otago's existing rest-home Elmslie House. Photo by Matthew Haggart.
The first stand-alone retirement village in the Queenstown Lakes district is on track to be built next year, with developers Presbyterian Support Otago (PSO) "extremely pleased" after two meetings with interested buyers.

However, a final decision on when construction can start on the Wanaka complex will not be made until further registrations of interested buyers are sought at a Dunedin meeting.

PSO financial director Andrew Borthwick declined to release the number of registrations made by potential buyers at two meetings held in Wanaka recently because of commercial sensitivity.

PSO will build a 24-unit complex, made up of 14 two-bedroom stand-alone villas and 10 one-bedroom apartments in a two-storey building, on a vacant lot alongside the existing Elmslie House rest-home in Wanaka.

Releasing the number of registrations of interest would alert other commercial operators in the market, he said.

About 70 people had attended the meetings in Wanaka last week.

"We're extremely pleased at the level of interest to date," he said.

More people from outside Wanaka and around Central Otago, Dunedin, and Southland had contacted PSO to express their interest in the retirement village, especially the stand-alone two-bedroom villas.

A meeting is to be held in Dunedin on Tuesday, September 16, at the PSO centre on Moray Place to gauge interest from other potential buyers around the region.

Holding a meeting in Dunedin did not mean there was not enough interest already shown by Wanaka-based people to justify building the complex next year, he said.

The final registration figures would be taken to the PSO board meeting, either in October or November, and board members would then decide whether the numbers justified proceeding with construction in 2009, Mr Borthwick said.

 

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