Opposition to Christchurch Airport building $80m Novotel hotel on city outskirts

Friday, 8 April 2016

Artist’s impression of the 4.5 star hotel to open at Christchurch airport by the end of 2017.

Plans to build a 200-room hotel at Christchurch airport have upset some city developers and business people who say the location will damage inner city regeneration.

Christchurch International Airport Ltd, which is 75 per cent owned by the Christchurch City Council and 25 per cent owned by the Crown, announced last month that it was building the $80m Novotel Christchurch Airport hotel to fill a major gap in the accommodation market.

Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism chief executive Vic Allen has backed the development saying that the inner city and airport accommodation markets were very different, and there was a real need for more rooms at the airport.

'It's not one or the other, we need both.'

**READ MORE:

Developer Philip Carter, of Carter Group, says spending public money on a hotel on Christchurch's outskirts will have a negative impact on the central city.

* Christchurch's new airport hotel part of property expansion

* Christchurch airport 'ticks a box' in building 200-room Novotel

* Ngai Tahu Property may pull out of Christchurch convention centre project**

'The fact is at the moment people (fly) in and spend their first night at Tekapo, Hanmer Springs or Kaikoura.'

However, prominent local businessman Philip Carter, a key player in the proposed convention centre which includes a hotel, described the decision as 'one of the most unfortunate decisions made in Christchurch since the earthquakes.'

'Fresh investment has stimulated the regeneration of the central city, but this announcement to spend public money outside the CBD will have a negative impact and send a confusing signal to the investment community both within and outside the city.'

Airport chief executive Malcolm Johns said research by Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism showed the city had 800 hotel rooms fewer than was needed to serve current tourism levels.

That deficit would increase to 1000 to 1200 rooms over the next year or so, and there was plenty of opportunity for private developers to fill the gap.

Central City Business Association chair Antony Gough said the new hotel, due to open in late 2017, would encourage passengers to stay overnight then 'shoot through' without spending time and money in the central city.

But Johns said that was exactly the market the hotel was targeting and it would cater for about a million short stay passengers a year who flew in and out late at night or in the early hours of the morning.

'They're not coming to stay for two, three or four nights, they're coming to transit through the airport.'

Local Tourism Industry Association hotel sector representative, Bruce Garrett, said there was already plenty of accommodation at or near the airport and the need was for more beds in the CBD.

'It's effectively the council going into competition with private hotels.'

Tony Sewell, property consultant and former chief executive of Ngai Tahu Property, said the airport was only 15 minutes by car from the CBD and the location of the hotel went against efforts to regenerate the inner city.

'We need to see a much more coordinated approach between what the city is trying to achieve and what CCHL (Christchurch City Holdings Limited, CIAL's parent company) and its subsidiaries are trying to do.

Mayor Lianne Dalziel said it was inappropriate for her to comment and referred Fairfax Media to the airport company.

Johns said the hotel announcement had been very positively received by airlines and travel agents and without the accommodation, the airport would end up losing market share. 'If we don't build more hotels as a city, then tourists will bypass us and go to Auckland, Queenstown and Rotorua.'