The school will be on a 3ha site between the new Wanaka Recreation Centre and Ballantyne Rd.
Ministry of Education head of education infrastructure service Kim Shannon told the Otago Daily Times this week the ministry was securing a design team to work on the school with a soon-to-be appointed establishment board of trustees.
The school is expected to open in 2020, she said.
Plans for the new school were announced in May last year.
Then minister of education Nikki Kay said the school would be built in two stages, would cater for 400 pupils and open next year.
A third stage, for another 400 pupils could be added later.
The ministry declined to say how much it had paid for the site.
Three Parks developer Allan Dippie said the design for the roundabout connecting the subdivision's main access route - Sir Tim Wallis Drive - with State Highway 84 had been completed.
"We've got to get that under way this year.
"Whether it will be completed this year, I'm not sure.
"I would like it to be."
Mr Dippie said his company, Willowridge Developments, would pay the full cost of the roundabout.
Because it was at the entrance to Wanaka, it would have a "high degree" of landscaping in and around it, Mr Dippie said.
He hoped to be able to present an illustration of the roundabout at the next Wanaka Community Board meeting.
Mr Dippie said he expected the first residential sections in the subdivision, next to the Wanaka Golf Club, to go on sale later this year.
