Big property projects signal confidence in central city

Saturday, 19 April 2025

The 15-storey hotel planned for 239 Manchester St in central Christchurch.

Plans including Christchurch’s tallest new building since the earthquakes are taking shape as property investors inject renewed confidence into the central city.

Buoyed by the opening of One New Zealand stadium less than a year away, plus ongoing interest rate cuts, investors and developers are launching into new projects.

Townhouse builders Brooksfield will put up a heritage-style office building on this Gloucester St land.

Upcoming developments include a proposed 15-storey hotel in Manchester St, new office buildings on Gloucester St and Colombo St with others already under construction, a new retail complex for Moorhouse Ave, and two new 50-home housing developments.

Courtney Doig, director of investment sales for commercial real estate firm Colliers, said they recently sold several commercial properties east of Cathedral Square.

A computerised impression of the new retail block planned for Moorhouse Ave next to the New World supermarket.

“There’s really good demand for the land in the central city. I think everybody has been sitting on the sidelines for the last 18 months - now they are keen,” she said.

William Wallace, South Island commercial general manager for real estate firm Bayleys, has seen increased interest in the past few months from as far afield as Asia, with lower interest rates a major factor.

Courtney Doig, director of investment sales for commercial real estate firm Colliers, says investors are no longer sitting on the sidelines.

“People are thinking ahead, and the stadium is going to unlock a lot of value around there,” he said.

“Everything within walking distance around there has become very, very popular, and there’s been a lot of property changing hands.”

The 15-storey hotel planned for 239 Manchester St.

He said international stadiums overseas are always a hub surrounded by food outlets and visitor accommodation.

ChristchurchNZ economic analyst Sophie Jones said that after a “sluggish” 2024, business confidence has picked up in the city, despite a nationwide dip in consumer confidence.

The Ouyang Family Trust has lodged its resource consent application for the 15-storey hotel and apartment building backing onto their Sampan House restaurant, with Christchurch City Council.

Leighs Construction’s wooden-framed build office building goes up on High Street and Manchester Streets in central Christchurch.

At 51 metres high, the tower at 239 Manchester St just south of Gloucester St would be the city’s tallest new post-quake development. The Ouyangs obtained consent to replace their restaurant with a hotel before the earthquakes, but did not go ahead.

Yu Ouyang said with a shortage of visitor accommodation in the city, and the stadium and Parakiore recreation centre nearing completion, the time is right.

This site just east of Cathedral Square has changed hands again.

“It will be very good for people coming to Christchurch, and for the city. A lot of Chinese come, but they go south and do not stay here.

“If they have a nice place to stay, they will spend more money in Christchurch”.

Topped with a roof garden, the $28 million building would have 106 hotel rooms, 12 private apartments, a ground floor restaurant and bar, and basement parking. The consent application describes the scale of the development as “appropriate to the role of the central city”.

On the same block, residential developer Brooksfield is embarking on its first central city commercial development at 160 Gloucester St between Cathedral Junction and Press House.

Plans for a new housing development, complete with a communal hot tub, plunge pool and sauna in a garden setting, planned for Bath Street by Williams Corporation.

The company, known for its heritage-style townhouses, bought the site in an off-market deal from Auckland hotel company Sarin Group. It is planning a four-storey office building, with hospitality on the ground floor.

Brooksfield director Vinny Holloway said the heritage-styled building “will look stunning looking up New Regent St and seeing it at the end of that long vista”.

A computerised image of the new hotel proposed to replace the old Harley Chambers building at the corner of Worcester Blvd and Cambridge Tce in Christchurch.

Nearby a vacant site now used for parking at 103 Worcester St just off Cathedral Sq has sold to North Island investors. It is understood they have long-term development plans, as do new owners of nearby 123 Worcester St, also a car park.

Other developments in the works include a plan by the Peebles Group to build a two-storey office and retail building on the corner of Kilmore and Colombo streets, and another on the corner of High and Hereford streets.

Office buildings already going up are the $30m office building for Leighs Construction on the former Excelsior site on High St, and Treshna Enterprises’ building in the next block north, next to two new Carter group buildings.

Developers Miles and Henri Yeoman are seeking tenants for a new retail complex they plan to build on Moorhouse Ave, next to the New World supermarket.

New hotels are approved for the Worcester-Cambridge corner and the Cashel-Manchester corner, while the former Noahs/Rydges hotel is being restored.

In Bath St opposite South City mall, Williams Corporation is chasing resource consent for 57 apartments and townhouses, complete with a communal sauna, plunge pool and hot tub. Also before council is Fletcher Living’s bid to develop 53 homes on Manchester St between Worcester and Gloucester sts.

Both companies are already building large central city housing complexes - Fletcher with the 120-home Gloucester Green development, and Williams Corporation with its 100-home Manchester Square. Mike Greer Homes’ 86-home Madras Square townhouse development is also well under way.

In the last quarter of 2024, there was 15% more commercial construction in Christchurch compared with the same time the previous year, compared with a 7% drop nationally.