Coroner Alexandra Cunninghame in a statement said she would not open an inquiry into the death of the 69-year-old, who was last seen alive on December 1 in his room at the Queenstown Hill hotel he owned.
Ms Cunninghame said a post-mortem examination had confirmed Mr Carlin died as a result of hypertensive heart disease, and police had confirmed there were no suspicious circumstances.
"He had complained of illness in the days before his death.
"He was not well but did not want to see a doctor."
A Californian native and father of three, Mr Carlin moved to Queenstown in his 30s after starting up and selling several successful companies.
He became a property developer in the 1990s, founding the exclusive Lakeside Estates gated subdivision south of the resort town — now called Oraka — and The Waterfront Apartments in the CBD.
His final development, which he dubbed his retirement project, was the seven-level, 14-suite Carlin Boutique Hotel in Hallenstein St, overlooking Queenstown Bay.
Opened in early 2022 after a $30 million build, the luxury hotel experienced significant trading losses, becoming a financial albatross for Mr Carlin in the last 18 months of his life.
In March last year, he put the property up for sale with an asking price of $35m, and had the intention of leasing it back from a new owner.
Three months after his death, the hotel’s management company, and a second company owning six of the nine units, were placed in receivership with combined debts of about $45m.
It is now being marketed for sale, by Colliers Queenstown, by deadline private treaty closing on August 8.
Mr Carlin overcame a challenging childhood to become a highly successful entrepreneur in a variety of fields.
He spoke about his rags-to-riches story in an interview with the Otago Daily Times in 2022, describing himself as extremely shy, and recalling how he was never praised as a child and sometimes physically beaten.
However, he inherited a prodigious musical talent from his late father, becoming an accomplished pianist and multi-instrumentalist.
That led to one of his early businesses, in which he wrote simplified arrangements of classical music pieces for school orchestras.
He also composed orchestral pieces for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra that were released in 2007 as an album, Princess of Wales: Musical & Pictorial Memoir, which reached No 23 on the New Zealand music charts.
After leaving home at 17, Mr Carlin lived in a tent for two years while training as a chef.
His drive and self-discipline enabled him to build and operate a 200-seat restaurant in California by the age of 23, after he convinced several doctors to invest in the project.
While working at the restaurant, a friend told him rock band Van Halen had just fired its chef, and needed a new one.
Filling in at short notice, he so impressed the band they referred him to other bands and celebrities.
He sold his share of the restaurant and used the capital to start Carlin Catering, spending the next seven years touring with artists and celebrities.
That led to him starting Carlin Manufacturing, a company which built mobile kitchens.
Ten years later, while still in his 30s, he sold that company to "retire" to Queenstown after becoming disillusioned with the direction the United States was taking.
