Ex-cop turned multimillionaire retirement village and tourism investor Graham Wilkinson is selling the Queenstown Outdoor Mini Golf property, consented for a 393-room hotel and retail outlets.
Colliers is advertising the 3090sq m site at 34 Brecon St via private treaty, closing March 9.
The property has a rateable valueof $23.8m.
Wilkinson said the owner is Brecon Street Partnership - 75 per cent him via his Generus Living Group - and 25 per cent Cheng’s Capital Investments of Christchurch.
Wilkinson’s Generus owns retirement villages in Auckland, the Bay of Plenty and Christchurch, Parnell’s The Foundation (under construction), Mt Eden’s Ranfurly Village and hospital, Pacific Lakes at Mt Maunganui and Christchurch’s Holley Lea and The Russley.
Around December 2020, interests associated with Wilkinson and others sold Queenstown’s 98-room Sofitel and Wellington’s 280-room Rydges (formerly Holiday Inn) for what he said was “some big numbers”.
That appears to have netted he and others around $160m.
The Herald reported how about $60m was paid when Brett Russell’s Russell Property Group, the Crown’s NZ Super Fund and Lockwood Property Group bought the Sofitel. Around $100m was paid for the Rydges Wellington by the same parties.
Wilkinson said he had also sold Hanmer’s Lodge to CP Group “but I’ve still got some involvement in tourism”.
Where the site sits in Queenstown's heart. Photo / Colliers
Consent has already been granted for a huge new hotel on the Queenstown golf site.
Advertising showed an image of how that new development might look based on a Warren and Mahoney design.
A hotel of about five levels is planned with restaurants and retail on the ground floor. Buildings are arranged around a central outdoor courtyard and schist, wood and stone are shown on the cladding in the design.
Wilkinson is also president of lobby group the Retirement Villages Association.
Plans for the new hotel on Brecon St. Photo / supplied
Last October, he said most retirement village residents surveyed by the association were happy.
“I am continually approached by residents highly annoyed by these types of stories as they know they are far from reality and that it suggests that they made a silly or bad choice. They find it demeaning,” Wilkinson said.
He was referring to publicity about retirement village residents lodging 271 complaints in six months, objecting to issues ranging from behaviour of neighbours to problems over money.
The Crown agency monitoring the multi-billion dollar sector doesn’t get copies of every resident’s grievance but it does know what irks some of the 40,000-plus people who live in the master-planned communities.
Retirement villages report the nature and number of complaints to Te Ara Ahunga Ora - The Retirement Commission half-yearly.
Neighbours’ behaviour, poor services in their villages, bad management and staff, and inadequate maintenance and building repairs of their homes and facilities are just some of the problems that prompted residents, often aged 75-plus, to put their concerns to the management.
Money was another issue. Fees, charges, health and safety, financial statements and lack of consultation between management and residents were other issues reported to the commission in its six-monthly complaints survey.
In December, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development said it would begin a review of the Retirement Villages Act.
“This review will be part of the ministry’s wider housing work programme and our commitment to creating thriving communities where everyone has a place to call home,” the ministry said.
“It’s almost been 20 years since the act and related regulations and codes were introduced and these have not been reviewed since. The review aims to address issues and strike a balance between the rights and responsibilities of residents and operators of retirement villages.”
