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Posted on Sunday August 22nd at 10:38 a.m.
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Porters is the closest ski area to Christchurch and has applied to Selwyn District Council for a private plan change to enable its Porters Expansion to proceed.
If the plans are approved at a hearing later this year, Porters expects its ski area expansion into nearby Crystal Valley would be open for the 2013 ski season.
The proposal represents the country's biggest skiing terrain expansion in 20 years and would put Porters on a level with Coronet Peak and Cardrona.
The expanded ski area would be one of the largest in the South Island with 407 hectares of skiable terrain and three chairlifts. It would also feature the country's first high-capacity gondola ski lifts to replace the mountain access road. There would also be extensive snow-making from 172 snow-guns to guarantee an early June opening.
The proposed village with an ultimate 3500 bed capacity would be New Zealand's first dedicated on-mountain, ski-in, ski-out village accommodation. The village centre would be built over an underground carpark for 1350 vehicles, with escalators taking skiers to the gondola base stations.
Porters is majority owned by the Harvey family of Sydney and is the second South Island ski area after Cardrona to be majority owned in Australia.
The Harvey family, who are keen skiers, have so far invested about $7 million in purchasing the existing Porters operation, upgrading its facilities and commissioning a ski area and village masterplan by New Zealand and Canadian designers.
In North America and Europe, a key feature of such ski area villages is the wide range of slope-side accommodation types to suit all skiers. The Porters village would therefore feature backpackers, budget and upmarket accommodation.
In addition, a range of family apartments and chalets would be available for sale.
On opening day, the expanded Porters Ski Area alone would provide a total of 500 winter jobs. At completion Porters Expansion would generate nearly 1000 full-time-equivalent jobs in Canterbury and bring $126m a year into Canterbury.
Porters has applied to the Department of Conservation for a limited form of freehold to allow for the expansion of the ski area.
The investment required to expand the ski area into Crystal Valley would be about $80 million and building the core village infrastructure and some accommodation at opening day would be another $170 million.
To complete all stages of Porters Expansion would require an investment of $500 million over 15 years of staged development.
The Harvey family is currently talking with like-minded families in Europe who are likely to also invest in the project if consents are obtained.
- Porters Proposed Expansion Information - PDF Download
- Alpine Village Questions & Answers - PDF Download
- Ski Area Questions & Answers - PDF Download
For further information contain Director of Development Mike Sleigh (pron Slee) Tel 021 388 910.
Now that the proposed Porters Expansion has been publicly notified by the Selwyn District Council, we need your support! There are several ways to do so...
1. Head online to the Selwyn District Council website to place a submission.
2. Via our website, get more information and place a submission.
3. When visiting Porters, head into the cafe to view the model of the proposed expansion, view more sketches and place a submission.