After three years’ planning, Skyline Enterprises Ltd pushed go on the Queenstown CBD building overhaul in February, 2020.
Initially, it was hoped new tenant DFS Group, which has taken over two floors inside the four-level building, would have opened its doors by June this year — that was delayed to October 1, before it opened on October 29.
This week, the first bites were served in Skyline’s lower-level food hall, dubbed Eatspace.
A subsidiary of Skyline will operate Souvla, serving Greek street food, and Lemon & Salt, serving seafood, both opening soon.
It will also run Casetta, an Italian trattoria, which is open, along with long-time Queenstown business Hikari’s The Sushi Platter, Korean fried chicken restaurant Monster Chicken, and former O’Connells tenant, Thai restaurant Bronze Elephant.
Skyline property and accommodation manager Alastair Clifford said they were "really proud’’ of the finished product, particularly given the issues they’ve had to deal with because of Covid, which threw a spanner in the works just six weeks after getting started.
He paid credit to head contractor Naylor Love and the large number of subcontractors for their work to get the building finished and open almost on time, as well as the community at large for enduring the work and disruption it caused, at times.
"We’re really proud of what we created down there and we think it’ll be well received.’’
Mr Clifford said opening hours at the moment were 11am till 8pm, seven days a week, but it would eventually be open from 10am to 10pm daily.
