Motel property rare offering

A premium Queenstown motel property is on the market for the first time in 25 years.

By the Frankton Road gateway to the CBD, family-owned-and-managed Queenstown Motel Apartments is for sale by tender, closing November 8.

What’s reasonably rare is that the land, the buildings and the business are selling as one.

Dianne and Peter Smith were already established moteliers when they bought FAB Accommodation in 1993, which they upgraded and renamed Alpha Lodge.

Eleven years later, they built 18 new studio apartments, for close to $2 million, retained six motel units and management quarters and renamed their complex Queenstown Motel Apartments.

“They just feel the time’s right for them to move on,” says Ray White Queenstown co-owner Cameron Reed, whose office is marketing the property alongside Ray White Arrowtown.

“It has been beautifully run for the last 25 years.

“They [including daughter Vanessa and son Hartley] take care of it like it’s their own home.”

Occupying 1872 square metres of high-density freehold land, the complex has major development potential, Reed says.

“Under the proposed district plan, you can have 70 per cent site coverage, and they’re nowhere near that, and a height limit of 12m. I think someone’s going to come in and buy it and continue to run it as is, and then at some time it will be redeveloped.

“We think there’ll be a lot of international and national interest.”

Reed says the price will reflect the value of the land, buildings and the business’ book value, along with the Queenstown factor.

Mountain Scene – 8th October 2018