The Land Valuation Tribunal made the ruling after the airport and the developer contested the value of the land compulsorily acquired in 2019.
However, in a rare dissenting opinion, tribunal member Lawrence Hill said the Queenstown Airport Corporation (QAC) should pay Remarkables Park Ltd (RPL) $71.2m for the land, commonly known as Lot 6, which sits to the south of the airport’s runway.
The complex, 161-page decision, which gives both the majority and minority opinions, follows a three-week hearing in March and April last year.
It boils down to the parties’ respective valuers providing different valuations for the land.
RPL claimed $73.5m for the 15.5ha site, while QAC valued it at between $26.2m and $28.7m — it has paid RPL $18.34m to date.
Among the areas of dispute were the methods used by the parties’ respective valuers, the land’s value growth potential in 2019, and whether its value should account for its hypothetical potential for commercial or industrial development at the time.
The QAC was the land’s original owner, but entered a land swap agreement with RPL in 1997 for a site to the north.
However, needing the land to expand its facilities as passenger numbers continued to grow, it bought the site compulsorily in 2019, under the Public Works Act, after 11 years of wrangling in the courts.
In their majority decision, Judge Prudence Steven KC and tribunal member Mark Dow settled on the $44.5m compensation figure, effective as at November 1, 2019.
They reasoned a hypothetical buyer at that time would have recognised there was a realistic prospect the planning rules applying to the land could be relaxed in the future, allowing a wider range of commercial activities.
They said the possibility of future access to the land via a proposed road, known as Road 8, would have influenced its market value in 2019, and should be reflected in the compensation amount.
In his minority finding, Mr Hill concluded $71.2m was the appropriate compensation by placing greater weight on the likelihood of future planning changes and the benefits associated with Road 8.
RPL director Alastair Porter told the Otago Daily Times he was pleased the tribunal had found the company had been ‘‘significantly underpaid’’ by the airport company.
He could not comment further while the decision remained subject to a 21-day appeal period.
A QAC spokeswoman said it was considering the decision and would not provide any comment at this stage.
The tribunal said it would deal with the issues of costs and interest payable on the compensation amount if the parties could not reach agreement.
