Another hotel planned for central Christchurch

Wednesday, 31 July 2024

An artist's impression of the new hotel planned for 48 Peterborough St, Christchurch.

Christchurch’s roll-out of new hotels continues, with an Auckland-based property developer seeking approval to build an 11-storey hotel in the central city.

The developer, GCO Group, has applied to the Christchurch City Council for resource consent to build an 11-storey hotel on Peterborough St, just west of Victoria St.

The hotel has been planned with 148 rooms, plus a lobby, restaurant and bar on the ground floor.

The hotel will have 148 rooms, plus a lobby, restaurant and bar. (Artist’s impression)

The building’s design incorporates curved glazed corners, and a curved screen made of brass rods covering part of the building.

GCO Group’s director of sales and marketing, Doug Walker, said construction of the four-and-a-half star hotel would ideally start early next year, and take between two and two-and-a-half years.

They are in discussions with several large hotel chains about who will run it, Walker said.

“I’ve struggled to get accommodation in Christchurch. My opinion is in Christchurch after the earthquakes, a lot of hotel companies have just sat back to see what would happen.

“It is becoming an amazing city, with the stadium coming up and really nice restaurants, and the conference centre (Te Pae).

“Our project is really good news, it’s exciting.”

Before the earthquakes the land housed a luxury apartment tower, the Est@blishment, which was demolished in 2012.

The Peterborough St site in 2017, when a new apartment tower was planned.

The site was then sold to a Christchurch company that received consent to build The Verve Apartments, a tower with 62 apartments priced at up to $1 million, but did not proceed with the project.

The land remains owned by Verve Apartments Limited Partnership, which has a sale and purchase agreement with CGO Group. It is now used by as a car park by Wilson Parking.

GCO has previously completed development in Christchurch including apartments, townhouses, commercial buildings and subdivisions.

The plan would bring the number of new hotel rooms in the pipeline for Christchurch to about 680.

NZ Hotel Holdings is planning to build a 13-level hotel on the corner of Manchester and Cashel streets, Citadel Properties Ltd plans is seeking consent to put a 200-room hotel on the old Harley Chambers site, and the former Rydges on Oxford Tce will be revamped and reopened as a joint venture by Auckland’s Russell Property Group and Canterbury’s Mainland Capital.

In March, visitor guest nights in commercial accommodation reached a post-pandemic high in Canterbury, with 413,000 stays for the month. Of these, 155,000 were in hotels.