SEA Holdings plans Millbrook- style golf resort in Queenstown

Friday 17th August 2001

By Chris Hutching

Trans Tasman Properties' main shareholder SEA Holdings is planning a multimillion- dollar Millbrook-style golf resort for Queenstown on part of the 2630ha Remarkables Park Station.

The $40 million first stage would include an 18-hole golf course, 60-room lodge and 40 homes to be built by 2005. At the southern edge of the development a hill called Jack's Point provides a setting with views over Lake Wakatipu. But the resort buildings will be below the Kingston highway and five minutes away from the airport.

SEA Holdings and TTP executive director Don Fletcher is in Queenstown this week to talk to project manager John Darby who was instrumental in the design and development of Millbrook Resort and is also involved as manager and investor with Howard Paterson in the Clearwater Resort near Christchurch.

The new project will be about twice the size of Millbrook. The operator of a planned hotel is yet to be announced.

The plan will be unveiled to locals in Queenstown next week as part of the initial public consultation and the company will apply for a variation to the district plan in the next few weeks and a subsequent hearing will provide an opportunity for people to make submissions.

Landscaping of the cluster housing will mean low visibility from the lake and highway. Opponents of further residential developments around Queenstown may be mollified by arguments from the developers that the site is appropriate for this kind of development on the urban edge of the resort town because it will preserve 95% of the open space.

It is unclear why SEA Holdings is the applicant for the development behind the proposal but it may be related to the unsuccessful attempt earlier this year to restructure 54%-owned TTP, which owns 43 investment properties in New Zealand, mainly office towers in Auckland and Wellington.

SEA Holdings is a 50-year- old Hong Kong public-listed company whose investments are mostly in property but also garment manufacturing and e-commerce. For the year ending December 31, 2000 the consolidated turnover was $HK775.73 million and net profit after tax of $HK102.72 million.

Queenstown remains a strong focus for property developers with a Queenstown-Lakes District Council planning committee this week considering whether to give permission for a $25 million luxury village at Walter Peak Station across Lake Wakatipu from the town. The application for a lodge, 10 luxury homesteads and 11 villas has attracted opposition from adjoining land owner and farm tourist operator Walter Peak Resort, owned by Fiordland Travel.

The property manager for the Walter Peak Resort tourist farm, Greg Ross of Locations Realty, outlined how the proposal would set new precedents as other high-country stations freeholded their lower-lying blocks of land under the Crown pastoral lease-tenure review process.

Mr Ross said the situation was similar to concerns facing Lake Wanaka residents who also oppose development on the southern shores because of the effect on views from both towns.

Queenstown lawyer Graham Todd also presented the objector's views that the proposed Walter Peak development would result in lost amenities to existing landowners and tourism operators and the community.

Warwick Smith, counsel for applicant Walter Peak Freehold, argued that placing covenants over the proposed development would solve any concerns by restricting any further development beyond those stipulated in the application. Walter Peak Station was bought by Florida-based marine researcher Ian Koblick and two Israeli investment partners in November 1998.

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