94 | BUILDING Alpine Group Construction Alpine Group blazing a trail in Central Otago Virginia Wright High-end project experts from page 92 Central Otago: Trinity Construction and Projects Sam Shefford has been building in the Queenstown area since the early 2000’s, his business partner Shane Johnstone since the 1980’s. Having successfully worked together on several builds it made sense for them to take the next step and they established Alpine Group Construction in 2012. Both builders now live in Arrowtown but their construction work takes them all over the region. They’ve recently completed the new early learning centre in Jacks Point which, despite only being open for about six weeks, already has 76 children enrolled thanks to a waiting list that existed before the build even began. True to form Alpine Group Construction brought the building in on time and on budget which is one of the reasons they were given the job in the first place. “We built it for a repeat client,” says Sam. “It’s the sister building to another child-care centre we built three years ago in Frankton, although this one has a medical centre on the second story which is an extension of the Queenstown Medical Centre.” A good deal of Alpine Group Construction’s work comes through a handful of repeat clients who between them provide almost enough work to mean that they need look no further afield. We do everything from people’s mailboxes right through to commercial. Over the 10 years we’ve had Alpine Construction we’ve done the majority of these clients’ work whether it’s a high-end residential build or a new shop fit-out,” says Sam. Their builds can be seen scattered through the main streets of Queenstown including all • Luxury domestic joinery • Exterior Timber Joinery • Custom Timber Mouldings • Commercial Fitouts www.woodsolutions.co.nz They’re pleased to see the Masterbuilder of the Year Awards back in action after a Covid-induced gap. The awards are stiffly competed and independently judged and winning one is guarantee of excellence. “It really is the industry benchmark of what you do: your craftmanship, your ability to deliver a project on time and on budget; and inevitably that has to be about working successfully not only with the client but with the architect, the sub-trades, just everybody because in order to bring these houses successfully to completion that has to be part of what you’re capable of doing,” says Guilia. In 2020 they won the Gold Award for the New Home over $ 2million category, and the same house won the Regional Craftmanship Excellence Award and was in the top 100 Houses of the Year nationwide. This year Trinity have an entry in for the 2022 awards. “It’s an individual house, quite quirky which was absolutely fun to make, the owner was incredibly involved at every stage of the build. It was really important that we got everyone on board with the owner’s particular vision from the builders to the interior designers.” They have recently handed over the keys to another, very different, house, says Guilia “It’s more about a house almost as an art gallery space, very restrained and sleek. These two houses show that we can achieve whatever the person wants and we work very hard to make sure their vision is realized.” As far as Trinity is concerned the future is about continuing to build “amazing houses for amazing people. It’s why we all get up in the morning,” says Guillia. With passion like that to tap into it’s not surprising that their clients keep coming back for more. three Fergburger franchises and what was effectively a gut and rebuild of the old Outdoor Sports Building in Shotover Street for Coronet Properties. Their calling card is the quality of the workmanship, and what Sam calls their “no-nonsense approach”. By this he means that they’ll do what they can to make the relationships involved in a building project: client, architect, engineer, and builder to name just a few, as productive as possible in the interests of a streamlined process that ultimately delivers the client their desired outcome. Underpinning all of that is the solid relationships they have with sub-contractors in the area. As Sam points out Queenstown and the surrounding region isn’t all that big and the number of contractors reflects that. Whereas in a bigger city you might have dozens of tradies, in the Queenstown region there may only be half a dozen electricians to call on. If they’re all busy you can’t necessarily just pull one out of thin air. “We try and work with the same contractors on every job, to keep a bit of normality and a bit of loyalty,” says Sam. “We pay on time and hopefully sub-contractors respect that and if we need something done they’re more than happy to help us out.” After ten years in business Alpine Group Construction now has a staff of 10: nine builders including Sam and Shane and one “We try and work with the same contractors on every job, to keep a bit of normality and a bit of loyalty.” Guy Worsley | Branch Manager P: 027 434 1091 E: guy.worsley@rothbury.co.nz rothbury.co.nz Southern Lakes local insurance brokers PROUD TO SUPPORT AND PARTNER WITH TRINITY CONSTRUCTION + PROJECTS, WE’VE GOT YOUR BACK!
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