Council considers development of prime Queenstown land

The Queenstown Lakes District Council is investigating the leasehold development of a parcel of prime Queenstown real estate, up to a third of which could be earmarked for affordable housing.

The council announced yesterday it hoped to achieve a long-term financial return to the community by retaining ownership and leasing to developers the 4ha freehold parcel of land, known as Lakeview, at the top of Man St.

The "Lakeview future development area" had a land value of $14.5 million and capital value of $17.9 million on the council's website about a year ago.

Council acting chief executive Stewart Burns said yesterday Lakeview was first offered for development, on a leasehold basis, in 2005.

Two parties showed "strong interest" in 2007, "but the global financial crisis meant no final agreement could be executed and the proposal was parked", Mr Burns said.

Renewed interest in the site resulted in the council considering a revised set of draft objectives for Lakeview at its June meeting, in the public-excluded session.

"We will now ask the council to formally adopt those objectives at its August meeting, but we have a short window before then to gauge any public feedback on the concept before we make a fresh call for expressions of interest later this month," he said.

The draft objectives called for a "physically and socially integrated ... development that is high-quality, high-density residential, including community housing, with the option for visitor-serving uses."

Asked if "community housing" meant affordable housing, in a resort notorious for high property prices, senior policy analyst Scott Figenshow said affordable housing had always been considered as part of Lakeview.

"The process it had gone through previously had indicated up to a third of the residential development would be for community housing, with council as the landowner."

Real estate industry sources, who declined to be named, yesterday described Lakeview as a "strategic piece of land, relatively flat, easy to build on, close to town and there's some stunning views from up there", but the market for high-density land was "soft" and worth a third of what it used to be.

Mr Figenshow said the specifics of what could be developed and what would happen to tenants in old cabins were still being worked on for the agenda for the full council meeting in Wanaka on August 14. The council invited feedback by next Friday.