Remarkables Park announces second new hotel and residential units for Queenstown’s rapidly expanding Remarkables Park
Town Centre
Queenstown’s Remarkables Park announced the next new hotel for its growing master planned development today (Wednesday 25 May).
Work on the multi-million dollar hotel, another addition to the Wyndham Portfolio in New Zealand, is expected to start
in March 2017 with opening scheduled for early to mid-2018.
The property is Queenstown’s second new hotel in five years and will be located on Market Street to the south of the new
Ramada Hotel & Suites Remarkables Park, which opens in the first weeks of June 2016.
Currently in the early stages of design, the new Wyndham hotel will comprise 81 serviced hotel apartments with 98 beds
and nine ground floor retail units. Part of the Wyndham Hotel Group, the world’s largest hotel company with nearly 8,000
hotels across 73 countries, the specific operating brand for the property will be announced in the coming weeks.
Both the new Wyndham property at Remarkables Park and the Ramada Hotel & Suites are being developed by experienced developer Robert Neil’s Safari Group.
Safari Group will also develop 55 residential apartments - a combination of one bedroom, two bedroom and two bedroom
with study units - in a separate building immediately adjacent to the new hotel. Total project value for the
development, including the hotel, residential and retail units, is estimated at $58m.
Remarkables Park Limited CEO Alastair Porter said news of the next hotel within the master planned development was
indicative of where hotel growth would be strongest in New Zealand’s most popular visitor resort. Plans for a future
scenic gondola and future Queenstown Convention Centre were important further elements of the Remarkables Park master
plan.
“We’re all acutely aware of the current shortage of visitor accommodation in Queenstown at peak times in particular, and
both hotels will help address that need. Remarkables Park is the largest greenfield site zoned for hotels in the region,
so it’s long been envisaged by Council and by Remarkables Park Limited’s development company that a lot of tourism
growth would be centred at Remarkables Park,” said Mr Porter.
According to independent research released yesterday (Tuesday 24 May) by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise 26 additional
hotels, above and beyond what is currently planned, will be needed over the next ten years to meet expected tourism
demand in New Zealand’s major tourist centres, of which Queenstown is one.
“The new hotel is great news for the immediate future, and it won’t stop here. We’re still deep in talks with other
hotel brands keen to potentially bring more mid-range and high-end properties to the resort. The feedback we’re getting
is that Remarkables Park certainly ticks all the boxes in terms of its location, stunning mountain views, the rapidly
growing Remarkables Park Town Centre, the Remarkables Park entertainment precinct, network of bike and walking trails
and proximity to the airport and Lake Wakatipu,” Mr Porter added.
“We’ve really enjoyed working with Robert and the Safari team and are very happy to see that business relationship
continue.”
Safari Group is one of the largest and most successful mid-size hotel developers in New Zealand and the new Remarkables
Park hotel will be the Group’s twelfth guest accommodation property since 2004.
Robert Neil, Director of Safari Group, said the decision to move forward with the Wyndham property at Remarkables Park
on the eve of the Ramada hotel opening had been an “easy” one to make.
“You know you’ve got a winning formula of easy to develop sunny sites complemented by stunning views and efficient
access to everything Queenstown has to offer when the Ramada suites sold so quickly,” he said.
“Demand is still extremely high and Queenstown’s continued tourism growth as well as solid commercial investment and
development outside of the hotel industry are all great indicators that it’s not slowing down any time soon.”
Graham Budd, Chief Executive of Regional Tourism Organisation Destination Queenstown, said it was an exciting
announcement for Queenstown.
“With the anticipated growth in demand for Queenstown hotel beds we are excited to learn about this new hotel
development which will assist in meeting Queenstown’s growing hotel capacity requirements.”
ENDS