Makaraka Estate Ltd, an Auckland-based company, is seeking land-use consent to establish a fuel-service station, a service station shop, an office and a "commercial activity" on the corner of Wiltshire and Berkshire Sts - where the former petrol station was located.
The site contains Shamrock Motors' auto repair workshop, which will continue to operate.
The former Wesleyan Methodist Church building was established in the 1890s, but had several additions, including a lean-to structure, which would be demolished for Makaraka Estate to restore the remaining building to its original form.
A Makaraka Estate Ltd spokesman yesterday told the Queenstown Times the church had been "hammered" over many years, having housed a school and later being used as an office for a trucking company.
It would be "completely restored" and would continue to be used by a sculptor who had set up a space in the building.
The spokesman said the company bought the site in 2007 "as Mobil were ripping out the last tanks" and had been working to reinstate a petrol station to the tourist town since.
It would be supplied by Gasoline Alley Services Ltd (GAS), to which Makaraka Estate Ltd had the rights.
"It's not a big commercial venture ... We're just trying to tidy up the property.
"We put a big [GAS coming soon] sign up on the roof ... People have been umming and ahhing and asking what was going on with it. I just put the sign up and that's answered everybody's questions."
The company was hopeful consent would be granted and, if it was, construction would start "immediately" with a 16-week works programme.
The service station would contain two fuel pumps supplied by a new 50,000-litre underground compartmentalised fuel tank.
The pumps would be covered with a 6.9m-high, 73sq m canopy, and the service station facility is proposed to include a 60.2sq m service station shop, located within the northern portion of the existing church building.
The existing auto repair workshop would be demolished in part and altered to include a new workshop extension, with the existing tyre bay to be retained and extended to include 73sq m of office space.
The proposal included the establishment of 26 car-parking spaces, of which seven would be located within the workshop.
The application said overall, the proposed redevelopment required consent as a non-complying activity in the Arrowtown historic residential management zone under the Queenstown Lakes District Council district plan.
Concept plans for the proposed development had been presented to the Arrowtown Planning Advisory Group last May, which was in support of the former church being restored to create "an attractive entrance" to the town.
"The demolition of the garage at the western part of the site is supported as it does not possess great architectural merit, and to enable reasonable vehicle access to the petrol dispensers.
"The applicant notes the services station will operate independent of the existing workshop on the site, which will not be significantly affected by the proposed redevelopment."
Submissions on the proposal close on April 20.
