Oaks Queenstown Shores Resort on Frankton Rd, Queenstown where Brosnan won three awards in Australia for massive building repairs. Photo / Brosnan
A Kiwi builder has been recognised for its work on a luxury Queenstown resort which needs $160 million worth of leaky building repairs.
The Oaks Queenstown Shores Resort is costing $993,000 per unit to fix the 161 apartments, according to the building boss in charge.
The scope of the work at the four-block 12-level complex is extensive.
It involves pulling all the buildings back to their concrete structures, replacing roofs, walls, balcony membranes, windows, doors, kitchens and interior linings.
Owners began repairs in 2019, reaching a confidential settlement with the Queenstown Lakes District Council in 2022.
Yet the physical repair work won’t be finished until later next year.
Geoff Nash, chief executive and managing director of builder Brosnan, said it had won the project after gaining a national name as leaky building repair specialists.
“We’re the people to go to when you want it done properly,” Nash said.
Brosnan has already won prizes for its work on the residential/hotel scheme overlooking Lake Wakatipu.
The Australasian Concrete Repair and Remedial Building Association made three awards to Brosnan for its works: a multi-residential building category award, a mega project award in the $10m+ category and the overall excellence award.
“This was recognised as an outstanding example of excellence in remedial construction,” a statement from Brosnan said of repairs which began about two years ago.
Nash said work on the property at 327-343 Frankton Rd was not expected to finish till later next year.
The project encompassed all facets of the industry, he said, including
The units were built on a steep lakefront site, Nash said.
Alpine weather, an evolving scope of works and having to work on buildings while the hotel remained a live operation were some of the challenges the builders faced.
Remediation involves pulling the buildings back to their concrete structures, replacing elements like roofs, walls, balcony membranes, windows, doors, kitchens and interior linings.
“To be eligible for the award categories, we needed to have finished a project in 2024. We had a separate contract for block two which we finished last year,” he said, describing how it was block two which won the awards.
“But we also did block one and we’re working on blocks three and four,” he said.
The Oaks’ body corporate is paying Brosnan directly, having settled a claim with the Queenstown Lakes District Council and the Government.
Nash said Brosnan’s entry described the full scope of works for repairs.
“We had to write a submission and highlight why we thought we should win. It was multi-faceted,” he said.
Compounding leaky building issues were passive fire defects, maintenance requirements and structural deficiencies.
Insights from fixing the first block limited unforeseen scope increases in the second and enabled the adoption of innovations like electronic leak detection. Blocks three and four further benefited from such learnings, Brosnan said.
The property was developed by Invercargill-based builder Ross McGregor Wensley, whose companies have since been declared insolvent.
In 2022, the Herald reported how Justice Cameron Mander in the High Court at Christchurch cited 18 faults at the properties.
Those included problems with balconies, roof and barge junctions, fire defects, structural, bathroom pods and cladding cavities.
Initially, costs were estimated to be about $75m but, by November 2020, the estimated costs were put at $120m.
Additional sums were claimed for lost rents and profits, people having to move, store their goods and clean the places.
Body corporate 355492, John Robert Chestney and others sued the Queenstown Lakes District Council, Elliott Architect, Edwin Gerard Elliott, Holmes Consulting Group, Arch Underwriting at Lloyd’s, Asta Managing Agency, Hardy (Underwriting Agencies), Liberty Managing Agency, Stephen Bruce McLean, Julie Raewyn Wensley Jack, Peter Lawson, Daniel Steward, De Geest Construction and de Geest Bathrooms.
The council applied to be struck out of the case, saying its last involvement with the project was in 2007 when it did the last inspection and issued code compliance.
But owners said the council was negligent issuing building consents, inspecting the works and issuing the code compliance, amounting to negligent conduct.
The complex was built from early 2004 through to 2006.
Soon after it was finished, the plaintiffs said they noticed defects: “The plaintiffs say the building appears to be leaking.”
Allegations were made that the building suffered weathertightness and structural issues.
The council granted a building consent for repairs to block one in 2019.
On August 28 this year, the Court of Appeal dismissed Body Corporate 355492’s challenge about the Government contributing to all blocks being fixed.
The owners had won money via the Weathertight Homes Resolution Services Act 2006.
But the chief executive of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment refused to pay for repairs to block four which the owners challenged.
The decision said a $12m sum was involved and the court backed the ministry, not the owners, on that count.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.