NZ: The Hills been green-lit for a fast-track consenting process

(Ric Kayne, Jim Rorhstaff, Emma Hill and Sir Michael Hill at The Hills (Courtesy of The Hills)

Entrepreneur Sir Michael Hill’s delighted the redevelopment of his Arrowtown golf course property’s been green-lit for a fast-track consenting process — but says “our aim is to keep things very beautiful and simple”.

Hill’s family, American billionaire Ric Kayne and his business partner Jim Rohrstaff have teamed up to upgrade The Hills’ championship course, including clubhouse, and build up to 107 dwellings for visitor, residential and staff accommodation.

The project’s one of 149 the government’s approved for inclusion in the Fast-track Approvals Bill.

“We’re quite welcoming a more streamlined approach,” Hill says.

“When I built this golf course [in the mid 2000s], you didn’t need a consent at all, now, if you move a fairway, like three metres, I need a resource consent that takes up to two or three years.

“So this is trying to simplify things, to make things sane rather than insane.”

Hill says their houses will be “very discreet and beautifully done, akin with nature, which the whole development will be”.

“I think I owe it to the community that I have the honour and privilege to have this most beautiful piece of land — I mean, God could not have made a better place for a golf course.”

He reveals he’s been approached by lots of people wanting to develop The Hills.

“But most of them were just greedy people in the sense all they wanted to do was fill the place with houses and sell them off and make a quick profit — I can’t think of anything worse.”

Hill says he teamed up with Kayne and Rohrstaff after seeing their Tara Iti and Te Arai Links golf courses near Mangawhai, north of Auckland — “an absolutely pristine, world-class set-up”.

“We found the perfect people to go in with that will create possibly, we’re hoping, one of the great golf courses and destinations in the world.

“It’ll become a legacy for the whole area of total excellence.”

Despite a model in which existing golf members will pay, reportedly, up to $295,000 in return for a stake in the new club and course, “we’ll never lose the touch and the feel of what we’ve built up”, Hill says.

The Hills’ GM, Rob Selley, says though the new membership model presents “a financial hurdle upfront, it’s the best way to keep The Hills as the best version of itself”.

“When you look at the model that’s been in existence, there was a risk for both the members and the Hill family.”

By contrast, the new model offers “pretty much sustainability in perpetuity”, he says.

Meanwhile, new partner Rohrstaff says “We were thrilled to have been selected for the fast track”.

“We are eagerly waiting to see what it means and how it can hopefully assist the process in getting through the various consents we need in a timely manner.

“Processes are long and expensive all throughout New Zealand, so any kind of assistance we can get while still respecting the landscape and density requirements that are approved would be great.”

He adds they’re planning to start work on the golf course in April, 2026, but there’s a chance construction work could start as soon as the third quarter of next year.