The news that Silverlight Studios has signed a deal to purchase land near Wanaka Airport for an industrial film park was the talk of the town last week and one of the landowners sat down with the Wanaka App to tell us how it came about.

Corbridge Estates Limited Partnership Ltd director Peter Marshall said the conditional agreement to purchase the estate’s 332 hectares was the result of the studio’s wide ranging search all over New Zealand for a suitable site and a casual conversation he’d had with “movie makers” in Auckland.

Peter said he understood Corbridge, which also includes the Corbridge Woolshed venue used for weddings and other special events (such as next week’s Wanaka Food and Wine Festival) was selected because of its unique combination of size, terrain, unspoilt outlook and location.

He said he was initially approached in July last year by an agent working for the studios who had been investigating the region and liked Wanaka because it was within 100km of a range of natural features essential to movie and television making, including West Coast rainforest, Central Otago’s dry stony formations, McKenzie Country’s vast plains, glacial features, lakes, mountains and so on.

Peter said privacy was also a key factor as very little of Corbridge Estates could be seen from public roads.

“You can only see the first 500m of the farm,” he said. “You can't see the two kilometres that goes to the river. And it's just got these major depressions and hills and it's got structure with them.”

“I think they have looked pretty thoroughly at a lot of other places, and I guess we also ticked the box as they want to be in close proximity to a town.” 

Corbridge Estates was the venue for the M!NT Charitable Trust fundraiser last week.

They don't want to have to create the infrastructure for the employees who will have needs for their families and their future like everyone else, Peter said.

He added that Wanaka’s Gigatown campaign which brought digital connectivity to the township years ahead of schedule, was also a factor.

Peter said he had suggested deals with options, such as leasing the land, but understood the company was only interested in purchasing the whole area outright.

“They have a conditional contract to buy Corbridge. They want to own it and that's fine. They've got their business case and that’s what they want to do” adding that the ball was in their court now.

Silverlight’s proposal to build an industrial film park, complete with studios, production offices, a film school, a screening theatre, and an exhibition centre, has been granted government approval to apply for a fast-tracked consent application via the Environmental Protection Authority, which would create an independent expert consenting panel to decide on whether or not to green light the project.

As the conditional deal relies on Silverlight getting planning approvals, Peter said “it’s not a done deal yet”.

“At the moment, we have a conditional contract with the movie company that might evaporate next week through a decision made in Wellington that we don't have any control over. 

“So we have to continue on our path,” he said referring to the original plan for the development of Corbridge Estates in the event the film park doesn’t proceed.

Peter had been liaising with former world number one professional golfer Greg Norman’s team to create New Zealand’s first 27-hole Greg Norman resort championship golf course. They particularly liked Corbridge Estates because the terrain was ideal for a resort course.

Peter applied last year through the Queenstown Lakes District Council’s (QLDC) Proposed District Plan for consent to develop the resort course under the Rural Visitor Zone category but was turned down by council. He plans to appeal the decision with the Environment Court.

His disappointment with the council doesn’t rest with this decision alone. Last week the QLDC admitted mistakenly releasing sensitive information concerning Peter’s golf resort proposal to a third party without authorisation and before it had been made public.

The error affected the negotiations between Peter and Silverlight Studios, resulting in an “unquantifiable loss” for Corbridge Estates. Peter is currently exploring legal options.

Although council declined the golf resort proposal, it has endorsed the film park proposal.

In October 2020, the QLDC sent a letter, signed by the mayor and deputy mayor, to the Environment Minister expressing “council’s strong support for the concept and the economic benefits we can foresee from such a development”.

The letter also acknowledged that the fast-track consenting process is intended to facilitate faster and more certain outcomes than the council’s usual consenting process under the Resource Management Act.

Peter said Corbridge Estates, which is still an operational farm cropping 250ha of barley and triticale (a wheat hybrid), is zoned rural and that zoning will have to change if either option were to proceed.

PHOTOS: Supplied