The company behind a proposal for a substantial mixed-use development on prime Ardmore Street land has submitted a new resource consent application. 

Wānaka Central JV Ltd’s original application sought consent for a 143-room hotel, 56 residential units, five retail spaces as well as seven food and beverage tenancies on a 5,100m2 site.

Read more: Five-storey Ardmore Street development in the works 

Design plans for the proposed development have “improved considerably” in its second application, its architects say.

The new plan still breaches the height restrictions for the Wānaka Town Centre-zoned site but the changes “have a material impact on the betterment of the design approach, massing and material selection,” architecture firm Cottee Parker said in application documents.

The development site on Ardmore Street. PHOTO: Wānaka App

The new application reduces the number of hotel rooms by 20, includes additional carparks, relocates the lobby to ground level and shifts a rooftop bar to a new location. 

These changes (alongside others including mansard-style room forms at the Ardmore Street frontage and a ‘cascading’ roof form) break down the “previous monolithic facade”, the architects said.

The purchase of an additional site on Little Street provides another 554m2 and plan changes allow for vehicle access to the site from both Little Street and Monley Lane, plus a loading area.

The development site is across the street from the Wānaka Hotel, another Ardmore Street property with expansion plans.

Owners of the hotel have submitted a resource consent application for an expansion to the hotel which would add 21 guest rooms and suites as well as two new retail spaces.

Read more: ‘Big plans for Wānaka’s oldest hotel’

Both applications are being considered by Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC).