It would be solar powered but with a grid connection.
Southern Lakes Property Trust director Mike Saegers told the Otago Daily Times yesterday he was proposing the facility on land in the southern part of the Three Parks commercial subdivision.
He was in the process of obtaining resource consent from the Queenstown Lakes District Council, and while there were some engineering issues to be worked through he had received a positive response from planners.
"There doesn’t seem to be any major hurdle with it."
Mr Saegers said it was not a permitted activity "because when the planning rules were written, charging stations didn’t exist".
He initially thought it could be consented as a "new-age service station" but the legal definition of a service station was that it sold fossil fuel.
While the facility would not make "commercial sense" as a stand-alone operation, the plan was for it to act as a carpark for four office buildings he was proposing.
"It’s both a car charger and a carpark.
"It’s made for office workers."
Some of the chargers would "trickle charge" cars during the day, while fast chargers would be available to the public.
He could not see any way of resolving the car parking problems in central Wānaka, and he expected that would lead to demand at Three Parks for office space.
"Whether it be in two years or five years, there will be an exit of professionals wanting office space out of the CBD, and that’s what we are positioning to provide."
The company had "paused" its design work while it considered the implications of the council’s urban intensification moves, possibly opening up the chance to build higher than three storeys.
As well as office space, the development would include "a couple of restaurants", showrooms and retail space.
Mr Saegers recently sold out of Integrity Homes and he and his business partner in the new venture, Andrew Shaw, were "just two local guys".
Wānaka has two chargers at present and Mr Saegers, who drives an electric car, described charging infrastructure in the Queenstown-Lakes district and elsewhere as "woefully behind".
