The Langlands Hotel opening likely delayed until 2022 because of Covid-19

Sunday, 28 June 2020

Strict hygiene rules for construction workers during the Covid-19 alert levels has likely delayed the opening of The Langlands Hotel from late 2021 until 2022.

The Invercargill Licensing Trust owns the hotel and chief executive Chris Ramsay said workers had to thoroughly clean tools before someone else could touch them, which was a major contributor to the delay.

In a report written by Ramsay and presented to the trust board last week, Ramsay says there had been some inefficiencies in the way Leighs Construction [the construction building the hotel] were able to operate under alert levels 3 and 2.

'Pre-lockdown, we were on track for opening on 22nd October, 2021. Given the proposed impact on programme of Covid-19, and the impacts of the various restrictions, opening date will likely be early 2022,' Ramsay says in the report.

**READ MORE:

* Southlanders spent $3.2m at Invercargill Licensing Trust bottle stores during April

* Delayed convention centre loses events but rebooks others over Covid-19

* ILT continues with new hotel build despite Covid-19 setbacks

**

Christchurch-based Leighs Construction is currently building the hotel at the corner of Don St and Dee St.

After the meeting, Ramsay said the delay was 'absolutely' related to Covid-19 restrictions put on Leighs.

New Zealand entered Alert level 3 at 11.59pm, April 27, Alert Level 2 came into force at 11:59pm, May 13 and Alert Level 1 began at 11:59pm, June 8.

Construction was stopped from March 25 to April 27, during Alert Level 4.

The hotel opening did not yet have a new date, Ramsay said.

'At this stage, Leighs are revising their programme for us based on what they saw as time lost through these inefficiencies.'

The trust had not received that revised programme yet, Ramsay said.

Opening in 2022 was a possibility because the trust would be unlikely to open the hotel close to Christmas, Ramsay said.

'There's very little point in us opening a brand-new hotel at a time when the corporate and leisure market aren't necessarily travelling as much down this way.

'If the time variations that come in as a result of Covid-19 push us too far into December, then it will be mid-to-late January 2022 before we will be open.

'That's as crystal clear as I can be at this stage … I'm actually flying a bit blind on what the programme implications are until Leighs has worked it fully through their programme.'

The trust announced 87 redundancies [48 full-time positions] in May, and recorded increased bottle store sales during the Alert Level 4 period, while all restaurants and bars were closed.

Ramsay said revenue, as opposed to profit, could be misunderstood.

'People can take those numbers out of context, and then they start querying 'well why have you made people redundant when you made $3.2 million in your bottle stores'?' Ramsay said.

'Well yes we took $3.2m in revenue, but it was only 12 per cent ahead of last year, at a time when we were carrying 607 staff and well over 500 of those staff weren't working.

'You've got all of these costs, which come out of that number which mean we still ran at a loss.'