Modular hotel fans undeterred by mouldy bathroom saga

Wednesday, 27 June 2018

Plastic wrapped pods for the modular Cosa hotel have been sitting on the corner of Moorhouse and Fitzgerald Avenues for months awaiting building consents

A second Christchurch hotel is behind schedule as it awaits consent for its modular hotel rooms, in the wake of the mouldy modular bathrooms saga dogging the new Christchurch airport hotel.

But hotel developers are undeterred by the hold ups and say the potential cost and time savings mean more modular builds are inevitable.

Christchurch's Cosa hotel was due for completion early this year, but the Vietnamese-manufactured room pods are still sitting on an empty section on Moorehouse Avenue, months after the hotel was due to open on the corner of Salisbury and Colombo Streets.

Owner Gary LePine said getting consent for the second stage of the build had taken longer than anticipated but it was imminent, and he is hopeful the hotel will open by September.

Steel framing awaits the delivery of modular units for the Cosa Hotel in central Christchurch.

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He is already planning another 100-room modular hotel in Tekapo, as well as residential and apartment complexes in Queenstown and Auckland.

LePine said the newness of the construction method had led the Christchurch City Council to take a cautious approach so the time taken to get consent was much greater than expected

This modular Wanaka 35-room hostel for the B Property Group will be put together in just five days once the units are delivered.

'They have to treat the modules as a component, rather than as a building.'

New Zealand-made pipes and wiring were sent to Vietnam so the units complied with New Zealand electrical and plumbing standards.

The Cosa's 88 rooms are stored outside until they can be lifted into position, and although some of the plastic wrapping had come off, LePine said the units were watertight.

Ecotech Homes is branching out into modular hotels after six years of importing modular homes made in Chinese factories and its first project will be an upmarket backpacker lodge in Wanaka.

Ecotech owner Tony Frost said the situation at the upcoming Christchurch Airport Hotel where bathroom pods required replacement after going mouldy from being left out in the rain was simply a case of poor project management.

He said the modular units should have been stored in a warehouse if immediate installation was not possible.

Frost worried that such incidents unfairly gave prefab construction a bad name. 'It just contaminates the industry.'

The modular Wanaka lodge is one of a series planned by B Property Group, a company set up by backpacker entrepreneur and Kiwi Experience founder Andrew McIntosh..

His brother Phil, who is consulting on the project, said they wanted to build 'dozens' of the lodges in New Zealand and Australia, so the Wanaka one was a prototype.

'We've got a couple of sites lined up around the country, including a very large one in Auckland.'

Phil McIntosh said they were initially keen on a panel system built in Cromwell, but the numbers did not stack up, and they had instead opted for the Chinese-manufactured units which were 40 per cent cheaper.

The steel boxes did not require painting, which could affect timing. 'There's no painting in Wanaka for the next two or three months because it's too cold for the paint to dry.'

Reducing the lag between planning and opening was a key consideration.

'By the time you do a plan and build it, the market could have changed immeasurably. With the modular we can build and plan in the same market.

'It will go up at least 18 months earlier, so that will be 18 months of trade we didn't have before.'