Corbridge director Tom Elworthy said a consent application for the site on Wānaka-Luggate Hwy (State Highway 6), about 10 minutes from the Wānaka town centre, would be lodged with the Queenstown Lakes District Council in the next few weeks.
Mr Elworthy said the previous owners had been speaking for around 20 years about putting a golf course on the land.
‘‘There is very little earthworks required; the contour of the land leans towards golf and housing sites are placed deliberately to make sure that visibility from the road is nearly nil.’’
Land on the Corbridge property had previously been used as a wedding and events centre.
Mr Elworthy said the site was not a subdivision, but a true resort.
‘‘We have to develop the resort facilities and get a large part of that well under way before any property can be sold.
‘‘We have been looking for someone who really objects to it but we haven’t heard anything yet,’’ he said.
A high-level plan for the area, provided to the Otago Daily Times, showed a golf clubhouse precinct, about 240 visitor accommodation units including a hotel, and a landscape protection area surrounding an unnamed artificial lake at the centre of the site.
The plan showed workers’ accommodation, a public driving range, a hospitality precinct, a par-3, 9-hole golf course, two 18-hole golf courses and a public trail.
The site for the planned development was, until recently, the site for the proposed Silverlight Film studio, Mr Elworthy said.
He said the Corbridge group had been in discussion with a range of community groups in the area including Mount Barker and Luggate residents, Forest & Bird, the Chamber of Commerce and the Upper Clutha Tracks Trust as well as making open invitations to interested parties.
The present plans include a public-access walking track to link to the Clutha River cycleway.
‘‘The reaction has been positive really. I think people can see Wānaka needs more golf facilities and visitor accommodation.
‘‘We are not trying to push anything controversial or trying to break down boundaries,’’ he said.
The group is currently working with advisers and consultants who have completed work in the Southern Lakes area.
Mr Elworthy said if consent was granted the project would take around six to eight years to be completed.
Mr Elworthy is a former owner of the Southern Hemisphere Proving Grounds, in Cardrona, and is now a director of Whakapapa skifield at Ruapehu.
The Whakapapa website says he has ‘‘15 years in operations across Tūroa, Cardrona, and Treble Cone, and 21 years supplying snowmaking and grooming equipment to the industry’’.
