Cardrona residents and visitors will have new options for eating, drinking and shopping if a new commercial complex billed for the village is approved.

An application for a 1,730m2 commercial precinct has been lodged with Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC).

The proposal includes restaurants, food kiosks and retail space, as well as small-scale visitor accommodation.

There is also a covered 650m2 ‘market place’, spas, a sauna, and outdoor areas.

The spas and sauna will be open to the public as well as visitors staying in any of the four self-contained visitor accommodation units. 

Urban designer Paula Costello said the retail part of the precinct was “likely to include a number of different selling places including café, sports retail or hire (cycle/ski) and other tourist or craft type retail”.

It would feature “a series of smaller tenancies both retail and hospitality focussed…useful in terms of enabling the start-up of small businesses, especially in locations such as Cardrona (a small settlement)”, she said.

If approved, the precinct would be located on Cardrona Valley Road, just north of the Cardrona Valley General Store and a few hundred metres from the Cardrona Hotel.

A handful of major projects for the Cardrona area have been announced in recent years, including Mt Cardrona Station (a development with more than 600 houses, a hotel and golf course), which is under construction.

There have also been big plans announced for the Cardrona skifield, including a new base building, an expansion into Soho, and - by a separate company Darby Partners - a valley-to-Soho gondola with guest facilities and accommodation.

Developer Carpe Cervisiam is behind the commercial precinct project.

QLDC is currently considering Carpe Cervisiam’s resource consent application.

IMAGE: Supplied