Office, retail likely for Te Pae hotel sites
Thursday, 7 August 2025
Plans to build new hotels next to the Christchurch convention centre Te Pae have been dropped in favour of a proposal for office and retail buildings.
Developer the Carter Group has applied to the city council for resource consent to build two seven-storey commercial buildings on Cathedral Square land previously intended for hotel development.
One building would span a site from Oxford Tce to Cathedral Sq, while the other would sit on the corner of Cathedral Sq and Colombo St. The plan would leave one potential hotel site next to Te Pae undeveloped.
The project, if approved, would be the first property development in the Cathedral Square’s northwest quadrant since the earthquakes.
The Crown began seeking a developer to build hotels at the convention centre since it downscaled the project from a public-private partnership in 2016.
In 2019, it selected the Carter Group to buy the land and build up to four hotels, including one five-star hotel. They were to have included both business and apartment-style hotels.
All but one of the sites are now owned by the Carter Group, with the other still in Crown ownership with a purchase agreement in place.
The hotel plan was part of an initiative from then rebuild agency Ōtākaro Ltd, now known as Crown Infrastructure Delivery Ltd, to help drive the city’s regeneration. Ōtākaro acknowledged at the time the financial viability of the new hotels was “borderline“.
Neither Carter Group or Crown Infrastructure Delivery Ltd responded to a request on Wednesday for comment on the resource consent applications.
Cathedral Square now has three hotels and two office buildings, with the closed former Noahs/Rydges hotel near Te Pae under renovation.
The Carter Group, owned by Philip Carter, has also lodged resource applications to put up two new office buildings on Armagh St.
Other developers including the Peebles Group, Countryside Property and YYK Ltd have new office buildings either planned or under way, as the supply of new office space in the central city runs low.
Hotel Data New Zealand says Christchurch’s hotel occupancy rates have risen to an average of 75%, and at peak times have reached 90%.
Caroline Harvie-Teare, chief executive of Venues Ōtautahi which runs Christchurch Town Hall, Wolfbrook Arena, Apollo Projects stadium and will operate the new stadium, said the city’s accommodation needs to keep up with the growing number of events.
“The stadium isn’t far away. If we have more than one major event on the same weekend, accommodation does come under pressure.”
Harvie-Teare said if Christchurch wants to attract exclusive events, there must be room for 30% of those attending to come from out of town, and promoters will consider whether enough accommodation is available when booking gigs.
Hotels being located in walkable distance of the main venues is important, she said.
Hospitality New Zealand’s Canterbury president Jeremy Stevens said the city’s hotel occupancy is expected to increase over the next year.
“There’s obviously a desire for more hotels in the central city, especially with the new stadium and sports centre coming up. They are going to be big drawcards for Christchurch and bring a lot of people into town.
“There is demand from these big hotel groups outside of Christchurch to secure something for themselves in the city.”
Recent research from ChristchurchNZ says greater Christchurch has capacity for about 7000 guests in hotels, 5000 in motels, and 16,000 in Airbnb and other types of holiday homes. An estimated 60% of visitors for an event stay in commercial accommodation and 40% with family or friends.
ChristchurchNZ says this year’s Electric Avenue music festival generated almost 63,000 visitor nights, while the Supercars Championship scheduled for April next year is forecast to generate about 38,000 visitor nights across three days.