Waterfall Park Developments Ltd has invited a large number of people to the meeting at Ayrburn on Wednesday.
The invitation contains construction plans for the hub, which show purpose-built studios and a variety of supporting buildings that would attract productions of varying sizes. The hub can accommodate two or more productions at the same time.
The development aimed to be a “one-stop shop flexible screen hub”.
The plans show workshops and workrooms for wardrobe, rigging, stunts, specials, camera, steel, props fabrication, special effects, art and construction.
There are also offices for production, locations, art, wardrobe, construction, data, camera, post-production/editing and special effects, and dressing rooms and rehearsal spaces for actors.
A “backlot space” will provide a flexible area to do anything from filming outdoor sets to providing storage and parking spaces for tech and catering vehicles.
There will also be 185 accommodation units, a gym, pool, spa, screening room and a meeting space for crew.
To increase the resilience of the proposal and “de-risk” the investment, the accommodation and office spaces will be used as short-term visitor accommodation, if they are not in use for screen-related activities.
However, priority will be given to filming projects.
Because the facility would sit on land that contains 1.2km of Mill Creek (the main tributary of Lake Hayes), Waterfall Park Developments Ltd has undertaken responsibility to improve the degraded water quality of both the creek and the lake as part of its application.
The proposal describes the Queenstown, Wānaka and wider Otago region as the third-largest screen production area in New Zealand, and “the jewel in the crown of the New Zealand film industry”.
However, due to a lack of film-making facilities, productions often only spent a short amount of time in the area, and consequently, less money.
It said the region was under-resourced in terms of screen production infrastructure, and geographically it presented its own individual logistical challenges.
“There are missed opportunities where productions would have preferred to come and film in Otago, but the lack of facilities means they end up selecting another location — certainly out of the region, and generally out of the country,” the proposal said.
The Ayrburn Screen Hub seeks to meet the demand and provide the appropriate facilities on 26ha of land between Arrowtown and Lake Hayes.
It also seeks to realise growth opportunities and associated economic benefits in the screen industry for the Queenstown Lakes and wider Otago/Southland areas that may otherwise be missed due to a lack of such facilities.
During its construction, the project is expected to inject an estimated $280million into the local economy and support 640 fulltime jobs across Otago.
Once up and running, the hub could underpin about 370 jobs locally every year, with flow-on benefits into the wider community and labour market.
The proposal was referred under the Fast-track Approvals Act 2024 by Minister for Infrastructure Chris Bishop earlier this month.
