The countdown’s on for one of Queenstown’s first visitor accommodation projects since Covid.
Pre-planning is well advanced for a high-end extension to Fernhill’s Kamana Lakehouse, which’ll occupy 1.1ha on steeply-sloping land running down to Aspen Grove.
It’ll comprise 19 luxury residences in 10 separate buildings — 60 bedrooms altogether — plus a central facilities building across the highest part of the site with a wellness centre, small meeting/conference area and restaurant.
The developer is Auckland-based Coherent Hotel Ltd, which bought the former Aspen Hotel in 2015 and remodelled it, over three years, into the more upmarket Kamana Lakehouse, with the quality of the interior fitout matching the peerless views of Lake Whakatipu.
On the balance of its site, the company originally proposed a $100 million, eight-storey, 89-room hotel that found little favour with nearby Richards Park Lane and Aspen Grove residents.
Queenstown council independent commissioners also rejected the proposal.
As a result, Auckland-based Hallion Architects came up with a since-approved plan for ‘Kamana Residences’ in which each building will look very much like a high-end Aspen Grove residence.
Aiming high: Building consent is already through for half the project
On its website, Hallion Architects says its brief was to design ‘‘the ultimate luxury accommodation in Queenstown’’.
The residences range from 300sq m, three-bedroom units to a 1200sq m, 10-bedroom ‘presidential annex’.
Auckland-based project manager Richard Hiles-Smith says Kamana Lakehouse is ‘‘working well, and it’s very good quality, and this is
planned to be sort of a step up on that again’’.
There’s proven to be a good market for very high-end visitor accommodation since Covid, he notes.
He adds the residences will be stepped down the hill so guests are looking at the view from each room and not the back of another residence.
Building consent approval is through for about half the project with the balance due about next March, Hiles-Smith says.
A start date for the two-and-a-half year build has still to be determined, he adds.
That depends on several factors such as whether Coherent Hotel will manage the residences, as it does with Kamana Lakehouse, or appoint an operator.
