Developer quits Queenstown project, citing neighbour pains

A development site for sale, outlined in red, on the corner of York and Hallenstein Sts. Photo / Mountain Scene

A prominent developer who recently received resource consent for a large central Queenstown accommodation complex has decided to put his site on the market.

Rob Neil’s Safari Group bought the semi-excavated 3276 square metre site, comprising four titles on the corner of Hallenstein and York Sts, two years ago.

Last month he told Mountain Scene he was very happy he’d gained resource consent for 22 apartments with six townhouses on top but was “frustrated with the path we had to take to get it”.

He said he’d made “some massive changes” to the design to try to placate neighbours concerned the townhouses, in particular, infringed the rear of the site’s low-density zoning, yet “they still wanted to have a crack at us”.

They’d slowed down the project by about nine months, he claimed.

Neil says he’s now selling the site primarily because he’s not convinced he’ll enjoy the construction process.

“Our neighbours have made our life exceptionally difficult, and on that basis we haven’t enjoyed that, and I’m not sure we’ll enjoy it going forward.

“The cost and the time and the effort and the pain and everything else, you just sit there going, ‘I’m not in this world for that’ - we’re in this world because we’re movers and shakers.”

Neil says his secondary reason for exiting is this type of five-star residential accommodation project is “not really our wheelhouse”.

“Our forte is doing hotel-backboned residential investment-type product”, citing, for example, his latest in Queenstown, La Quinta, at Remarkables Park, which has 91 hotel and 96 residential apartments, all sold off individually.

He stresses, however, he still loves the site - “the site is spectacular”.

He thinks the buyer is potentially an Australian developer who’d sell it down to offshore clients - “I don’t think a New Zealand developer will buy it ’cos they’re all too conservative in this market”.

Neil says he’ll now pursue other projects including plans for his TRYP Remarkables Park hotel/residential complex, near his Ramada and Wyndham Garden hotels, for which he has an option to buy the site.

Meanwhile, his Hallenstein/York Sts site is being marketed by local Bayleys agents Mark Martin and Luke Baird by way of deadline private treaty, closing August 24.

The sales blurb says the site is “an incredibly rare find in Queenstown”, and refers to proposed zone changes under which the high-density zoning, off Hallenstein St, may extend over the entire site.

Martin says it’s close to the CBD yet “you’re still going to get a bit of elevation for the views, which are important”.

He adds a new buyer could use the existing resource consent or come up with something else.

He states the site will be marketed extensively throughout New Zealand, Australia and Asia, and through both Bayleys’ residential and commercial channels.