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It’s the huge $130million extension to Fernhill’s Kamana Lakehouse hotel, comprising 19 luxury residences in 10 separate buildings, plus a central facilities building.

They’re going on 1.1 hectares of steeply sloping land running from the front of the hotel down to the upmarket Aspen Grove subdivision.

"The civil guys have done so well we’re a couple of months ahead of programme," project manager Richard Hiles-Smith says, "so we’re trying to chase things to speed it up at this stage, which is a good problem to have."

As a result, foundations have been poured for the first two buildings, with three more under way at the end of this month.

Queenstown-Lakes’ Civil Projects is handling excavation and drainage while McMillan Civil is doing the retaining walls.

"They’re both on site probably till about February/March," Hiles-Smith says.

"We’ve kind of almost, touch wood, broken the back of the hardest part of it.

"Our biggest risk and uncertainty was the ground and what was in it, so we’ve had a pretty good run at that, and now we’re getting those platforms coming up, it’s turning into a bit more building as usual."

The developer, Auckland-based Coherent Hotel Ltd, a subsidiary of Colwall Group, bought the former Aspen Hotel in 2015 and remodelled it into the more upmarket 73-room Kamana Lakehouse, which opened three years later.

In May this year, Japanese construction and engineering giant Toda Corporation bought a majority stake in Coherent HotelLtd.
Coherent Hotel owns nine accommodation properties around New Zealand, including Queenstown’s Novotel hotel, and they’re doing work on about six of them at the moment, Hiles-Smith says.

With all their projects they engage 3Eyes Construction Group as their main contractor, and for Kamana they’re in a joint venture with local-based Amalgamated Builders, which is handling the first two buildings.

Hiles-Smith estimates there are 70 to 80 workers on site eachday.

"There’s still a little bit of a resource issue but it’s a lot more manageable than what we were anticipating a year ago."

The project’s pegged for completion early to mid-2027.

"We’re not going to do a staged opening because of the calibre of it — we’re not going to want guests in there while we’re still building the last residences," he says.

Once it’s finished, Hiles-Smith adds, Kamana Residences — the project’s working title, at least — will look very much like an extension to Aspen Grove’s collection of very high-end modern homes.

The residences range from 300sqm, three-bedroom units to a 1200sqm, 10-bedroom ‘presidential annex’.

The facilities building will include a lobby entrance, wellness centre, small meeting/conference area and restaurant.

Auckland-based Hallion Architects, on their website, say their brief was to design "the ultimate luxury accommodation in Queenstown".