Delays launching Skyline upgrades

An artist’s impression of Skyline Queenstown’s proposed new lower terminal. Image: supplied.
An artist’s impression of Skyline Queenstown’s proposed new lower terminal. Image: supplied.
There was never any doubt Skyline’s proposal for a massive redevelopment of its flagship Queenstown operations was going to take time.

The company announced its plans in July last year — at that stage it hoped to have started work last month and was looking to be finished by August or September next year.

As it stands, it will be at least October before its primary resource consent application — directly referred to the Environment Court — progresses any further.

It still needs to make an application for a proposed multistorey car parking building, to accommodate 350 parks, proposed for land behind the lower terminal and, subject to consents, it will take about four years for the $100million-plus development to be completed.

Skyline chairman Mark Quickfall said the company knew the process would be "challenging", but it  remained committed to and focused on seeing it come to fruition.

"As you can understand this is a huge commitment for Skyline and this is just one step closer to allowing us to undertake the whole project.

"I think we’re always of a mind that because it is such a major project for not only Skyline, but also Queenstown, this was always going to take time ...  There’s an awful lot of resource going into this, but we are absolutely determined to get it right.

"This is generational ...  We’ve been there 50 years, this is looking forward to the next 50 years, so, although it’s hard work, it’s hard work for a reason.

"We’ve got to get it right and that’s why we’ve responded how we have."

Part of that was the proposal to construct the car parking building, taking into account submissions which raised that as an issue.

Judge John Hassan indicated during last week’s Environment Court hearing in Queenstown that as long as the parks could be provided within a five-minute walk of the gondola, Skyline did not necessarily need to construct its own parking building.

Despite that, Mr Quickfall said the company would continue to work on its consent application, aiming to have it lodged in July.

"I’d have to say, sensibly, for the long-term, building a car park ourselves is our preferred option.

"We’ve already had concept designs done for the car park, we’ve already done a lot of work, we will now focus on continuing to resolve car park issues ... our immediate issue is the car parking."

The entire development seems to be a massive, incredibly expensive, jigsaw puzzle which needs to be put together with precision timing.

It would take between 14 and 18 months for the new gondola system to arrive once it had been ordered but, as Mr Quickfall said, "once you buy it, then we suddenly own it, there’s a big risk if you don’t end up getting consent for everything".

The company, therefore, would delay ordering that until consent for the car park was determined.

"Once we can get that locked down we can move forward with more confidence."

Skyline also needed to factor in the breeding season of the kiwi — between July and April — so as to avoid disrupting them through construction.

"We’ve worked very closely with Kiwi Birdlife Park and I’ve got to say they’ve been extremely accommodating in working with us, so we can mitigate the effects."

The project would require a complete shut down of the gondola for about two months which, ideally, would occur in "the off seasons" — either April/May or September/October.

The court indicated Skyline would likely need to develop the car parks before the refurbished and expanded upper terminal could be commissioned.

That meant work would likely be occurring simultaneously at the bottom and top of Bob’s Peak to satisfy that potential condition.

Mr Quickfall said the development, in particular the installation of the 10-seat gondola cabins, was in the best interests of every company working on the hill — that included Ziptrek, AJ Hackett Bungy and GForce Paragliding.

"We’re all going to be hamstrung if people have to wait ... to get up the gondola.

"It is an iconic site for tourism and we see this, in a lot of ways, not only as a benefit to our shareholders, but a benefit to the wider community.

"This is not just for the next 10 years, it’s for people coming along way beyond our tenure."

tracey.roxburgh@odt.co.nz

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