Casino giant SkyCity’s folded its cards over plans for a five-star Queenstown hotel.
It’s put a one-hectare Frankton Road site, bought for $16 million in 2019, on the market.
SkyCity Entertainment Group had planned to build an international-class, 100-plus room hotel that could have accommodated high-rollers play ing at its Beach Street casino.
It would also have had lake and mountain views to die for.
Subject to a law change, it could have potentially included an in-house casino, transferring the licence from its currently-closed Wharf Casino, though the company had kept its cards close to its chest on this possibility.
The local office of Warren and Mahoney Architects was due to design the hotel after winning an architectural competition.
A SkyCity spokesperson confirms the 1.0153-hectare site — which it required Overseas Investment Office approval to acquire — has been listed with Colliers Queenstown.
As to why it’s selling, the spokesperson says ‘‘the sale aligns with the current company strategy’’.
Colliers is marketing the site, roughly halfway between Frankton and the Queenstown CBD, as ‘‘the largest remaining vacant lakefront development site along Frankton Rd’’.
With appropriate zoning for high-density development, the information memorandum states its specific location, ‘‘combined with the moderate sloping contour and natural terracing down to the foreshore, helps provide superior winter sun over other locations both to the east and west … which are more shaded by Queenstown Hill’’.
Having approved access off the state highway also adds value, it suggests.
The property’s latest capital valuation is $17.6m.
The sales deadline for 633 Frankton Rd was initially next Thursday, though it’s understood that may be pushed out by a couple of weeks.
