The Mill is a multimillion-dollar one-stop-shop facility, backed by Queenstown-based tech entrepreneur Rod Drury.
It incorporates a 1200sqm gym, including a 25m indoor turf track, a 40m outdoor sprint track and group training areas, saunas, cold plunge pools, pneumatic compression therapy, cryotherapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy and healthcare services.
Those include physiotherapy, podiatry, sports massage therapy, a musculoskeletal specialist doctor and a research-grade Dexa scanner, providing bone and body composition scanning.
Mr Meager said yesterday it would be a "massive asset" for the Queenstown community, but also a facility for the wider South Island.
"I can imagine [Queenstown] going from a tourism destination ... to a place where we can be an investment hub, or a place where people can bring their business and bring their commerce and bring their lives ... and use this as a resource."
Sports Minister Mark Mitchell, who officially opened The Mill, said the facility was "hugely impressive".
"You have created a facility that people are going to want to come to, and they’re going to want to excel and push themselves."
Mr Mitchell paid tribute to Mr Drury who, he noted, had many choices in terms of where he went and invested.
Mr Drury said the idea for the project came after Covid, as a way to diversify Queenstown’s economy.
While the area was already a top sporting destination, which attracted international athletes year-round, it lacked a world-class facility for them to train in.
Mr Drury said the facility, designed by Queenstown’s Warren and Mahoney architects and built by Cook Brothers Construction, had been a "true partnership", delivered "pretty much" on time and on budget.
General manager and physiotherapist Peter Forch said The Mill was a facility for all.
New Zealand had a "unique ecosystem" in which ordinary people could train alongside elite athletes and draw inspiration from them.
"That’s exactly what this space is set out to do.
"I can’t wait to see how many little champions we can create."
