Waipuna Rise, which is part of the Frankton North masterplan, will have office, commercial, retail, carpark, residential and possibly hotel components over a 4.1ha parcel owned by Christchurch-based Latitude 45 Development Ltd.
Under construction are two blocks of five pre-sold terraced houses which Cook Brothers Construction is building.
Resource consent applications have been lodged for two large buildings close to the highway.
One is a five-level L-shaped commercial/office building, designed by Sheppard & Rout Architects, which the developer is pitching to Queenstown’s council as a civic administration complex they could initially lease and potentially buy down the track.
The other is a four-level office building, designed by Hilton Miller Architects, which Cook Brothers Construction Southern Lakes Ltd is developing fort itself.
Waipuna Rise project manager Anton Kirkbeck, from John Edmonds & Associates, says with the council unable to afford to build its own office building, "we’re basically offering this up as a really good fit".
The council would lease the building, he suggests, at a comparable price to what they spend renting four CBD offices in addition to the main offices they own.
Otherwise they will lease the building to other tenants, he says — "we’d probably build it in two sections as tenants come into the frame".
Behind this are nine commercial properties (see sidebar) — these last two buildings have also been designed by Sheppard & Rout.
The developer originally planned 44 apartments on this site, "but the market didn’t justify it so we went back to the drawing board and turned it into commercial," Kirkbeck says.
Behind the commercial block is a row of 11 more terraced homes — designed, like the first 10, by Ignite Architects— which Southbase will start building soon.
Kirkbeck says the second stage has potential for 50 to 60 more dwellings of various typologies including elevated premium apartments with great views.
There’s also a possible boutique hotel and a second carpark building.
He notes access will be via a road running from the Hawthorne Dr roundabout across vacant land to the east.
Civil works include "some really extensive stormwater systems because of the flows coming off the hills".
