The receiver of the company behind a $50 million resort development at Walter Peak will study the books and be advised on the "appropriate process to follow" this week.
On Friday, Auckland-based PFK Corporate Recovery and Insolvency Ltd took control of the 38ha property on the shores of Lake Wakatipu earmarked by owner Rod Neilsen as a multimillion-dollar "semi-wilderness" estate.
PFK also took control of associated companies Walter Peak Developments Ltd, Queenstown Alpine Developments Ltd and Queenstown Villas (NZ) Ltd.
Mr Neilsen bought Walter Peak in 2006 for $10 million with the aim of building a luxury lodge, eight homesteads and eight cottages.
The land is next to Walter Peak High Country Farm, owned by tourism company Real Journeys and operated as a tourist attraction.
Receiver Anthony McCullagh said PFK secured the assets, books and records, "to find out what has been going on.
We have an absentee developer who is somewhere in the United States."
Strategic Finance was the lender to Walter Peak and PFK was waiting to see what direction Strategic wanted to take.
There had been past attempts to sell the property but the last tender, which closed on December 10, failed.
It was not known how robust the process was and a more structured tender process could be on the cards, Mr McCullagh said.
"There are three unsettled apartments in Queenstown on which there appears to be unconditional agreements," he said.
"We need to see if they are valid and enforce the settlement."
Walter Peak Estate features an 820m frontage to the southern shores of Lake Wakatipu and has been partly developed.
There are no permanent buildings on the site yet.
Harcourts sales consultant Warwick Osborne told the Otago Daily Times late last month the subdivision infrastructure had been put in place and about 75,000 plants established as part of the landscaping plan.
Mr Osborne and Mr Neilsen were unavailable for comment yesterday.
