About 30 full-time equivalent jobs seem set to be created when seven shops and services open in a new building in the Remarkables Park Town Centre.
DNZ Property Fund Ltd announced yesterday it had approval to build an extra 900sq m building at the gateway to the shopping centre in Frankton, the largest in the Queenstown Lakes district.
The building was expected to complement Wakatipu architecture with the use of schist and cedar, along with landscaping to Hawthorne Dr and the existing town centre.
The building would provide an additional 900sq m of mostly retail space in seven stores of 70sq m to 250sq m, with a small amount of office space.
Match Realty directorAubrey Cheng, of Auckland, said yesterday leasing interest had been "exceptionally strong" with tenant-targeted sizes, development design and the location of appeal to a range of retail uses.
DNZ Property Fund retail general manager Roy Stansfield, of Auckland, said yesterday with annual centre sales up 8% on last year, "the development of an additional 900sq m building is in direct response to demand for space in this exceptionally well-performing retail centre".
Mr Stansfield said the target start date for construction was October and the block was to open ideally by Easter, but certainly by mid-2013.
Mr Stansfield said several prospective businesses were lined up.
"They're in the process of making that deal unconditional and telling their own staff and when we get that call, that everyone's aware of what they're doing, we'll put the names out there."
He said at least one potential tenant would be new to Queenstown and others were already in the Wakatipu in some capacity.
'The key things that have been driving this building were strong sales annually and we're always trying to fill in those retail gaps that exist in the centre," Mr Stansfield said.
"They may exist in the centre of Queenstown, but certainly not in the [Remarkables] centre, or Frankton preferably."
DNZ Property Fund owned 51 properties with 252 tenants nationwide, as of June 30.
The portfolio investment entity's top 10 tenants were Bunnings, Progressive Enterprises (Countdown), the New Zealand Government, Fletcher Building, Foodstuffs (Pak'n Save and New World), ASB, Meridian Energy, Mitre 10, Lion and Westpac.
