More than one million people are expected to visit the new Central Otago hospitality precinct Ayrburn this year, with the venue forecast to be the most popular and most visited attraction in the region, its owner says.
Winton Land owns the property beside Millbrook outside Arrowtown where it already has restaurants and bars but plans a screen hub, retirement village and other amenities.
Winton, headed by CEO Chris Meehan, declared its result for the year to June 30, 2025 today.
“A continued difficult property market and very challenging economic conditions” were referred to in the investor presentation.
Revenue fell from last year’s $173 million to $155.4m. Net profit after tax fell from $15.8m to $10.3m. A total of 266 retirement village units were settled in the year, a decrease of 79 units, it said.
“Although there was a lower proportion of built product settled by volume in FY25, the cost per unit was higher as the built product was more premium than the built product settled in FY24,” it said.
Meehan said Winton had completed stage one of the retirement village Northbrook Wānaka and the first residents had moved in.
The result also detailed Ayrburn openings lately, including The Bakehouse and R.M. Prime Produce.
In March, the inaugural Ayrburn Classic was held and thousands of people attended.
The construction of Billy’s restaurant and the adjoining conservatory were finished in June. What was the late 1800s Ayrburn farm homestead is now a restaurant serving refined Cantonese-inspired cuisine.
Ayrburn retirement project Northbrook Arrowtown excavation works are preparing for construction of the first building.
Construction tenders are in and Winton is picking its contractors.
In Auckland, the renovation and refurbishment of the Cracker Bay office building in the Wynyard Quarter is almost complete, “offering premium waterfront facilities for tenants across four levels”.
Leasing has progressed with 71.4% of Cracker Bay lettable area leased by June 30.
The last of the council resource consent approvals were received for the wider Cracker Bay and Northbrook Wynyard Quarter precinct. Winton plans a $750m scheme there.
The timing of construction will be determined once market conditions improve, the company said today.
Peter Gordon’s Homeland restaurant was in that waterfront building, but he left.
Winton delayed Northbrook Wynyard Quarter before Christmas and offered buyers their deposits back. That project was to be Auckland CBD’s first vertical retirement village.
Borrowings are at $100.4m.
Meehan wrote: “Hard decisions have been made regarding the timing of projects, which has meant slowing some down until funding and building costs stabilise. While the Auckland market continues to be challenging, we have focused our attention on Winton’s southern projects, specifically Northlake Wānaka, Northbrook Wānaka, Northbrook Arrowtown and Ayrburn.”
On the outlook, the company said: “Unemployment continues to increase, and we maintain our view that the residential property market is unlikely to substantially turn around until after unemployment has peaked.”
Winton was navigating the recession as well as possible and positioning itself to benefit from an improving property cycle.
Now was a prudent time to avoid taking risks and conserve resources until the economy and market began to turn around.
“We will be judicious in committing further capital to projects until we have conviction that the market has a positive outlook. We maintain our view that we don’t expect this to occur until after unemployment has peaked,” it said.
Shareholders will get no dividend because the board had decided “to maintain financial discipline through softer market conditions”.
Meehan got $107,000 director fees, wife Michaela Meehan got $64,000 as did executive director Julian Cook.
Meehan earned a total of $1.9m in the June 30, 2025 year, up from $1.84m last year.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.