– Cade Thornton and James Jenneson bought the Cardrona Hotel after a spontaneous visit.
– The hotel, once struggling, thrived under their management and is now for sale.
– The sale has attracted significant interest, with offers due by August 15.
It started as a road trip, a lap of the South Island in a classic sports car to escape the stresses of post-quake Christchurch. But when friends Cade Thornton and James Jenneson stopped at the iconic Cardrona Hotel for a beer, they opened the door to a whole new career.
“While we were living good lives, we were looking for a change,” Cade told OneRoof.
“We called into the Cardrona Hotel in the pouring rain. It was so cool, although in need of a zhuzh up.” The friends never expected to buy the hotel, but that’s exactly what happened, after Cade’s mother suggested it. Eight months of due diligence later, and the pair bought the building and business.
At the time, the heritage-listed hotel was struggling. It didn’t have a website, or an online booking platform, or any social media presence. The pair employed new staff, and the business boomed.
Friends Cade Thornton and James Jenneson have turned the hotel into a booming business but are selling up after 12 busy years. Photo / Supplied
Now, 12 years later, the two friends and their partners, Alexis Thornton and Fleur Jenneson, are selling up, just as the ski town’s property market hits boom phase.
“It’s just time,” Cade told OneRoof. “It’s 12-and-a-half years, it’s my 13th winter, and in that time we’ve both got married, we’ve got kids. It’s a busy business, and people call my wife the pub widow, because I’m always at work.”
The sale of the hotel has attracted a huge amount of interest. The listing is already the most viewed this year. The deadline for expressions of interest is 4pm on August 15 – three weeks away at the time of OneRoof’s interview with Cade.
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He said buyers from New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Singapore had been getting in touch.
“We’ve had an immense amount of interest, as you can imagine. It’s been a very busy process for us. There have been more than 10 very, very interested parties working towards making an offer,” Cade told OneRoof.
“My day just consists now of answering questions about the hotel. I wake up to emails, and off I go. It’s quite a big thing to consider purchasing, so people are having to get into a bit of nitty-gritty early on.
The hotel is a New Zealand icon, and sits in the Cardrona Valley, on the scenic route between Wanaka and Queenstown. Photo / Getty Images
“It’s a freehold going concern, we’re selling the land and building. On August 15, people will present an offer to us, and we will work with someone from there. Fingers crossed. Hopefully it sells. We’ll see. You never know. It doesn’t sell until the money’s in the bank.”
The listing of the Cardrona Hotel is taking place against a backdrop of economic growth in the town: the Cardrona Alpine Resort has expanded into the Soho Basin, creating New Zealand’s largest ski area. A gondola is expected to be built in time for the 2028 ski season, with Queenstown developer John Darby, who is behind the project, also planning to link Cardrona Valley with the alpine resort and Soho Basin.
Cardrona’s residential property market is also humming.
The nearest home to the Cardrona Hotel for sale at the time of writing was 44/2326 Cardrona Valley Road. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom home on 93sqm of land covers the upstairs of a two-storey 2007 build and is for sale with New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty. It’s a five-minute walk to the hotel by road, but just a couple of minutes across the grass and car park.
Also up for grabs in Cardona is a two-bedroom home at 44/2326 Cardrona Valley Road. Photo / Supplied
Buyers have options to build in the town, with this 345sqm section in the new Mt Cardrona Station development for sale. Photo / Supplied
Listing agent John Fisher said the property was currently a short-term let on Airbnb, bringing in $500 per night at the height of the tourist season. Fisher has recently sold two other properties in the same development: a three-bedroom unit for $950,000 and a two-bedroom for $775,000.
For those wanting to build, a 345sqm section in the new Mt Cardrona Station development at 56 Lee Avenue was available for sale by negotiation with Colliers agent Roger Ellis.
The land has a 209sqm building platform, and the master planned community is expected to expand to around 570 homes.
“That is one of the initial properties to go on the market, but then there’ll be at least another 200 sections plus to come on board,” Ellis told OneRoof, adding that the listing had garnered about 2000 views within a few days of hitting the market.
New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty has a number of home and land packages available in the Mt Cardrona Station development. These include 27 Lee Avenue, which is a home and 438sqm land package. The 196sqm home has been designed by Leuschke Architects. The package is priced at $759,000.