Major New Development for Downtown Queenstown

New buildings proposed for a central Queenstown site are expected to set a new standard of commercial redevelopment in the elevated Man Street fringe of the downtown area.

The three buildings have been carefully designed to provide high quality urban form with user friendly public spaces, view corridors and pedestrian links between Shotover and Man Streets.

Proposed by Man Street Holdings, owned by Trans Tasman Properties and Queenstown property developer John Martin, the development comprises two high quality mixed use buildings and a skylight structure designed to house a café.

Spokesman John Martin says the company has worked with architect Andrew Patterson and several other design professionals to produce plans that they believe are the best possible for the stunning location atop the soon-to-be completed Man Street car park.

“We have designed buildings that are modern, edgy and designed to last at least 100 years.

Andrew’s concept is bold and strongly articulates the sculptural forms of our environment,” said Mr Martin.

“This development is looking to the future and we believe it will become part of an urban renewal jigsaw that started further down the street with the Sofitel building. The design is edgy, inclusive in terms of people, and we hope it will set the tone for future development of this side of town.”

The technically complicated buildings are angular and unusually shaped in response to their location and the geography of the site.

Low site coverage promotes pedestrian links, open spaces and significant view corridors that allow views through the site from Man Street out to the lake and The Remarkables.

The buildings maximize the sunny site featuring stacked schist rock behind massive, double glazed glass walls bringing together modern design concepts and traditional materials.

When considering the bulk, site coverage and height of the buildings, affected neighbours in Man and Isle streets were consulted. This consultation was considered by the company as critical to the evolution of the proposed design.

The concept of allowing views through the site was generally favoured by the neighbours over a single building along the 130m Man Street stretch of the site.

The buildings each break through the existing height planes.

This is in consideration of the steep geographical nature of the site, the need to balance the existing neighbouring Hamilton building, neighbours preferences and the scale of other new buildings in the general urban area.

“This project will now go through a public notification phase where we can consider how people feel about our design,” said Mr Martin.

We believe this is the best possible design for the site, now we need to know if the community agrees.”

The two main buildings each comprise three levels designed for commercial, residential and accommodation use.

The third is suitable for a café or restaurant.

The buildings will be set on top of the four-level Man Street car park which is due for completion in March 2007. Subject to resource consent processes, construction could begin at that time and the construction phase is expected to take about a year to complete. The estimated cost of the project (including the car park) is $50million.

John Martin is well known for expert and sensitive redevelopment in Queenstown.

He has previously redeveloped the Eureka building in Queenstown’s Mall housing the National Bank, restaurants and the picture theatre complex, the Steamer Wharf complex and most recently, Church Lane.

He describes himself as ‘bullish’ on Queenstown.

“The future is extremely bright for the town.

The character of Queenstown has changed and we are now putting down the building blocks down for a very large community or even a city,” he said.

“The latest buildings to be built are significant structures of high quality as we see a redefining of the fabric of the town. It’s an exciting time for Queenstown and an exciting time to be investing.”

An application for resource consent is soon to be lodged with the Queenstown Lakes District Council.

ENDS

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