The centre is managed by Lyal and Diana Cocks, of Wanaka, who will continue to be the Wanaka community's first point of contact for bookings and queries.
Mr Paterson said Mr and Mrs Cocks' contract would be reviewed at the end of 12 months.
"There are huge benefits at the moment having Lyal and Diana here," Mr Paterson said.
Publicity material states the Queenstown Lakes District Council-controlled company Lakes Leisure Ltd is to take over the management of the centre from July 1, along with a handful of other facilities in the Upper Clutha district.
They are Wanaka Station Park, Wanaka Showgrounds, Peter Fraser Park (Lake Hawea), the Wanaka town centre street banners, the Dinosaur Playground, Pembroke Park, Allenby Park and the Wanaka Showgrounds event sign.
The bulk of the QLDC-owned facilities to be managed by Lakes Leisure are in Queenstown.
Mr Paterson and five Lakes Leisure staff, who are all based in Queenstown, held a "getting to know you" meeting in Wanaka on Wednesday, attended by 12 members of the public.
Lakes Leisure board member Mike Saunders of Wanaka, who is also the chairman of a council working party investigating the future needs of Wanaka sports facilities, was at the meeting.
Both Mr Paterson and Mr Saunders said as the council's assets continued to grow, Lakes Leisure would end up with more facilities to manage but at the moment, it did not want to take on any more work than it could cope with because it was a new company.
The company was managing only what the council had asked it to manage, they said.
Wanaka resident Cheryl Taylor criticised the council and the company for not taking responsibility for all council-owned facilities, such as local halls and the Wanaka arts centre.
"There has been a lot that have been left out. Why start operating without taking over them all . . . I can see that this is very Queenstown-based. You've picked up about 10 Wanaka facilities and there are probably 30 . . . I just think that's poor. There should be more representation from Wanaka. Were the public given the opportunity to have their say on this?" Mrs Taylor said.
Deputy mayor John Wilson, of Wanaka, said the council had not set up Lakes Leisure to be a "Queenstown takeover".
Wanaka was getting a pretty good hearing on its recreational and sporting needs but would not be getting things such as a new aquatic centre in five minutes, Mr Wilson said.
The way some community organisations were managing their facilities was working well.
Just because they were not included in the Lakes Leisure list, that did not mean the council would not support them, Mr Wilson said.
