Whiskey distillery could be a gold mine for one visionary property developer

Ever dreamed of owning a whiskey distillery or spending the summers mining gold in the Kawarau River? The dream could become reality with the sale of 24.1 hectares of land located 33kms east of Queenstown. 

The property is being marketed by Bayleys Queenstown agents’ Albert Voschezang and Martin Barwood, who say the purchase of this property is a unique opportunity as it has resource consent for a whiskey distillery and tourist orientated tasting complex, plus two residential sections. 

“While resource consent has already been obtained for a whiskey distillery and a tourist tasting complex, purchasers are welcome to investigate the land and modify the property to suit their needs,” says Barwood. 

“There are only a few tourist attractions in the area, so there could be potential opportunity to develop something in this area – such as the whiskey distillery or gold mining attraction. 

“Apart from the various wineries, the other attractions are bungy jumping at the Kawarau Bridge and the Nevis - so there is definitely room for development in the tourism industry,” says Barwood. 

The land is located within the Gibbston Valley special zone, bordered by the Kawarau River on one side, and State Highway Six on the other - giving the property prime main road frontage. The property is up for auction August 20. 

Barwood says resource consent has been issued to subdivide the site into two rural residential sites of 2.035ha and 2.670ha plus a larger 19.159ha commercial site – which has the approval to build a whiskey distillery. 

“The criteria for development in the Gibbston Valley places great importance on the impact of obtrusiveness on the surrounding landscape, so any developments would have to fit in with the lands’ surrounds,” says Barwood.  

Fellow sales consultant, Albert Voschezang, says there are significant visual values to the Gibbston Valley area, such as regular rows of grapes interspersed among open pasture, giving a very pleasing visual experience to the area. 

Voschezang says the Gibbston Valley area also has significant heritage qualities, with history of the area being one of the pastoral farming areas for gold mining.  

“There are a number of archaeological sites, historical buildings and mature trees in the area, as well as several more recent developments such as wineries, all of which land mark the area.” 
 
“Gibbston Valley has a significant sense of ‘place’, which is the reasoning for the subject property’s ‘special character area’ zoning status, that looks to enable various activities on a positive basis, while establishing a long term strategy for the sustainable management of the physical and natural resources in the area,” says Voschezang. 

Barwood says Gibbston Valley is located on the main Queenstown to Cromwell road link. Rates for the property are $1, 016.11 per annum. 

“This is a very busy link, with in excess of 3000 cars travelling daily on this part of the road, which ensures high exposure for the subject property” says Barwood. 

The property is surrounded mainly by grazing land, and has excellent views across to the northern banks of the Kawarau River and valley and mountain views to the west and east. 

Barwood says the southern three quarters of the site has a relatively level to slightly undulating contour that gradually falling away to the north east, then steps down to an undulating area of lower terrace land before dropping steeply down towards the Kawarau River.  

“The site is interspersed with various rocky outcrops and has mainly native pasture and a mixture of sweet briar rose and matagouri scrub.”