Invercargill Licensing Trust plans to spend $7.5m on upgrades
Tuesday, 14 May 2019
The Invercargill Licensing Trust plans to inject $7.5 million into its existing commercial properties during the next 12 months.
ILT board members have approved the investment for the 2019-2020 financial year and included will be a $1.92m upgrade of the Homestead Avenal.
ILT chairman Alan Dennis said the Homestead Avenal redevelopment would include a new childrens play area.
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Other large scale projects on the agenda are:
- Room refurbishment across all six accommodation properties - $1.475m
- Ascot Park Hotel (including conference room and roof) - $1.197m
- Kelvin Hotel (Level One bar plus carpeting) - $438,000
The balance of $2.47m in work would be shared across ILT's other businesses.
Reinvesting in its existing businesses was a long-standing focus for the organisation, Dennis said.
'New projects like The Langlands hotel are exciting but we are also acutely aware of the responsibility we have to ensure all our properties are well-maintained and continue meeting the needs and expectations of our community.'
ILT chief executive Chris Ramsay said the investment would likely have a significant impact on the profit result for 2019-2020.
However, he added that the Invercargill community could be confident the ILT had budgeted to carry out the work while maintaining the current grant levels.
The investment to its existing comes at a time when the ILT had also committed $40m to building a new inner-city hotel, the Langlands.
'Completing this work will ensure we are giving our existing accommodation properties the best chance possible to mitigate the drop in occupancy levels that will happen once The Langlands opens,' Ramsay said.
'This year's plan again has a focus towards our accommodation properties as we seek to maintain current market positions in the lead up to the new hotel build.'
'Our target this year is once again ambitious and realistically the full list will likely take through until the next financial year to complete,' he said.
Meanwhile, Dennis was disappointed the plan to build a container bar at Wachner Place had been blocked but confirmed they had started work on trying to get an alternative new establishment sorted for the inner city to fill the gap.