However, Project H Ltd spokesman Ray Macleod, of Dunedin, is delighted resource consent has been granted for his two-storey, 450sqm commercial building in the centre of the lakeside town.
A full-service Super Value supermarket would be the anchor tenant and there was space for three other commercial tenants and 23 car parks.
"Although there is nothing particularly exotic about the commercial building in the sense we are not looking for designer vanity, top-of-the-range items, it is a functional design," Mr Macleod said.
Final building consent drawings were being worked on with Woolworths Group and Super Value management and would be released when completed, he said.
"Basically, what we asked for, we got," he said.
"I think we are really, really fortunate that we had a really good design team and planning team. They worked together really well and worked really well with the council ... For the pressure they are working under, they have done pretty well," Mr Macleod said.
There is one store in the shopping centre zone, Hawea Store and Kitchen, operated by Hamish and Erica Mackay, on the corner of Parry Cres and Capell Ave.
Project H Ltd’s two-storey building would be behind that store and accessed from Parry Cres and Bodkin St.
Just across the road, in a vacant lot, resource consent has been approved for another supermarket and commercial space.
In December Quartz Development was granted resource consent for a supermarket, visitor accommodation, retail spaces and cinema.
Company director Matt Laming said the designs had already been progressed "a long way" and he had been ready to go when he found out Project H was applying for consent.
In his opinion, the rival proposal would be "an ugly barn" and did not make the best use of the site.
He was now reassessing his own proposal to come up with something even better, he said.
Mr Macleod said Project H had contracted a builder, Breen Construction, and aimed to complete the new store in July or August next year.
"There will be 12 months in the building and we have had to allow for a time extension because of supply issues ... We may find supply times improve as we open our borders and shipping schedules become more regular ... It is hard to say. But it has taken a long to get to this point."
