Multi-property Queenstown hotel a developer's dream

The Tanoa Aspen Hotel features views over Queenstown towards The Remarkables.

The 73-room Tanoa Aspen Hotel in Queenstown is for sale along several adjoining properties making it an ideal prospect for investors and developers.

"This sale represents one of Queenstown's most significant tourism and redevelopment opportunities in many years, says Dean Humphries of Colliers International who, with colleague Barry Robertson, is selling the property package totalling about 15,000sq m by way of international expressions of interest closing on March 31.

The sale encompasses:

• the 2880sq m freehold Tanoa Aspen Hotel at 139 Fernhill Rd on its 6537sq m site;
• freehold development land of 5778sq m at the same address;
• a freehold four bedroom house on 698 sq m of land at 10 Richards Park Lane;
• a freehold, four bedroom house on 564sq m of land at 12 Richards Park Lane;
• a freehold vacant land site of 564sq m at 16 Richards Park Lane;
• a freehold vacant site of 799sq m of land at 20 Aspen Grove;
• stratum in freehold two-bedroom apartment Number 205 and three-bedroom apartment Number 306 on Deposited Plan 25060.

Humphries says properties being sold as one package have stunning views and include one of the few remaining development sites available in Queenstown.

"Demand for land like this is exceptionally strong and will remain that way due to a critical shortage of appropriately zoned land," he says.

Humphries says investment demand for hotels like the Tanoa Aspen Hotel is also high.

"With all hotels and tourist accommodation in Queenstown operating at full capacity, investors and developers are frantically searching for hotels to purchase. However there are simply no other hotels available on the market."

The record breaking sale for a four-star hotel in New Zealand of the Novotel Queenstown sold off market for $91 million late last year highlights the current climate.

Humphries says Queenstown is running at full capacity with a record occupancy of close to 80 per cent.

"Queenstown is one of the hottest tourist destinations in the Asia Pacific region and is experiencing a major tourism boom fuelled by increasing airline capacity and a favourable exchange rate. The significant change for the region is that it has gone from being a high demand seasonal destination to a high-demand all-year round destination."

He says the 3.5 star Qualmark-rated Tanoa Aspen Hotel in the hillside suburb Fernhill has a solid revenue stream and profit margin accompanied by an attractive development site that can accommodate further expansion or other forms of development including residential, aged care or a Mixed Use development.

Robertson, Colliers' tourism broker in Queenstown, agrees that development land in the region is being snapped up at record prices, and says he expects the medium density development land adjoining the Tanoa Aspen Hotel to be a major attraction for investors.

"This property will be ideally suited to a hotel operator who would like to brand the hotel under its own name with options of either potentially expanding the complex up to 200 rooms or using the property for a range of other uses.

"The Fernhill location is one of the most elevated tourism sites in Queenstown with unobstructed views towards The Remarkables and over Lake Wakatipu, giving the Tanoa Aspen Hotel a major point of difference with a large number of accommodation properties in town that don't have such views," Robertson says.