New Five Mile developer Tony Gapes yesterday confirmed construction of stage one of the complex, worth $70 million, would begin at the 7.8ha site later this year.
"We are just going through the leasing process at the moment," Mr Gapes said.
"We are talking to tenants, signing people up and we are hoping to start about October."
Confirmed for the 26,000sq m big-box retail complex is a 4200sq m Countdown supermarket. Proposed are a six-screen cinema complex, bulk retail outlets and 40-50 smaller retail and food outlets in a mall based around a two-level department store.
With retail centred around a large car park, the large outlets may include sports, furniture and homeware stores. A glass-enclosed mall sector would comprise mainly fashion and food stores.
Mr Gapes said "probably around 30%" of the retail space had already been leased to a mixture of New Zealand and international businesses. The cinema operator was yet to be confirmed and he would not comment specifically on which retailers had leased space.
The new development will spell the end of the Frankton Flats eyesore, an excavated site intended to be used as a massive underground car park for the original Five Mile development.
It was left uncompleted when developer David Henderson abandoned plans for the 10,000-home Tuscan-style village, which was backed by the failed Hanover Finance.
Mr Gape's company, Gateway Queenstown, bought the land from the receivers in late 2009 for $21 million. It then gained master-plan resource consent approval earlier this year.
If Five Mile eventuates, it will compete with other Frankton developments Remarkables Park and the proposed $100 million Shotover Park complex, which will include a Pak'n Save supermarket and petrol station.
