Sudima Hotels opens a $40 million boutique hotel in Christchurch and is starting on a new hotel in Kaikoura

Thursday, 20 June 2019

The $40 million, five-star Sudima Christchurch City in the central city has opened.

Sudima Hotels has opened a new $40 million luxury boutique hotel in Christchurch, the first new-build hotel in Christchurch since the earthquakes, as it starts ground work on a new Kaikoura hotel.

The other hotels to open in the city after the earthquakes have been redevelopments or conversions of existing buildings, the hotel's chief executive Sudesh Jhunjhnuwala said.

The hotel comprises 86 rooms and is the first new-build hotel in Christchurch since the earthquakes with other hotels that have opened being converted or redeveloped from existing buildings.

It's Sudima's second hotel in Christchurch and fourth in the national chain taking its assets to about $200m. It has hotels at Auckland Airport, Rotorua and Christchurch Airport, the latter having a $25m makeover in 2015.

Sudima Chrischurch City is billed as a five-star luxury hotel, comprising 86 rooms and is located on the corner of Victoria and Salisbury streets.

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Sudima chief executive Sudesh Jhunjhnuwala says the new hotel shows the national hotel chain's confidence in Christchurch and in tourism prospects.

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The new hotel will create 28 full-time equivalent jobs in the city.

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'We are very proud to introduce this new hotel to the Christchurch market.'

Sudima has just started ground work for a $30m hotel in Kaikoura.

'This is the first new-build hotel to open in the Christchurch CBD since the rebuild began, and it signifies our great confidence in the local market and the prospects for the tourism sector,' Jhunjhnuwala said.

He was pleased that the new Sudima Christchurch City would add 28 full-time equivalent jobs in the city.

The hotel offered high quality dining at its Vice & Virtues restaurant and bar and pampering at Moss Spa, he said.

The 86 rooms comprise 45 king rooms, 33 twin rooms, six apartments and two executive apartments on the top floor.

Last week the company had started ground work for a $30m hotel in Kaikoura and was planning to open that in August 2020, while it expected its Auckland CBD hotel on the corner of Nelson and Wellesley streets and under construction to be opened in July 2020.

Sudima Hotel is the first hotel chain in New Zealand to be carboNZero certified.

The certification means it has committed in various ways to reducing its carbon emissions and buying carbon credits to offset the remaining emissions so that it is effectively carbon neutral.

Jhunjhnuwala said the group aimed for all its new hotels to be built to a standard that enabled certification to carboNZero as soon as possible after opening.

Sudima Christchurch City would be a single-use plastic free hotel and be the first hotel in New Zealand to have a plant-based bathroom range and biodegradable slippers.