New look for old eyesore city hotel

Friday, 23 August 2024

An artist's impression of the new Worcester St entrance of the hotel.

Renovations to the Christchurch riverside hotel previously knowns as Noahs and Rydges will see the building extended, outdoor dining and the addition of the city’s highest rooftop bar.

The 14-floor Oxford Tce hotel has been closed since the earthquakes, and throughout long-running insurance negotiations which followed.

The hotel, built in the early 1970s, is owned by Emmons Developments and will be redeveloped as an $80 million to $100m joint venture between Auckland’s Russell Property Group and Canterbury’s Mainland Capital.

The new hotel is due to open in late 2026, with a brand deal yet to be done.

The hotel will retain its distinctive curved shape.

A resource consent application for the project has now been lodged with Christchurch City Council.

Mainland Capital director Ben Bridge said it will be a premium hotel, and they have a short list of potential operators.

“There’s been very, very strong international interest.

“The hotel will be in keeping with how it started out in the 1970s, as the South Island’s leading hotel. ”

How the rooftop bar and terrace will look.

He said the location, next to Te Pae and Cathedral Square, will help it attract business visitors, tourists, and local residents.

When reopened, the hotel will have an extra 1300m² of floor space. The facade will be updated with new windows and cladding, which Bridge said will retain the original look.

Additions will include an extension on the eastern Cathedral Square side, a new double-storey street frontage facing the river, and a canopy extending over Worcester St shielding a new forecourt. There will also be an arrival and departure lobby with a glazed revolving door.

The number of guest rooms will be increased from 210 to 240.

The full-height extension which will face Cathedral Square.

The ground floor will include a restaurant and bar, with a raised terrace on Oxford Tce used for outdoor dining.

Function rooms and a guest lounge will be on the first floor.

The top level will include the city’s highest rooftop bar, with an outdoor terrace facing north. A presidential suite will also be on this level.

The outdoor dining terrace on Oxford Tce.

Comments in the consent application from Dalman Architects says they “understand the importance of this building to Christchurch”, and their design will modernise and extend the hotel “in the spirit of the old, maintaining many of the key features”.

“We wish to retain the essence of the hotel’s architecture as well as many of the hotel’s key features, to bring the building back to life and into the 21st century, whilst maintaining its function as a hotel.”

The previous ground floor podium which surrounded the base of the hotel tower has already been demolished, as have the retail and parking buildings on the eastern site.

Emmons Developments is in the process of drawing up a masterplan for a mixed-use development for that land.