DCC again seeks hotel developer

Car park site back on market

THE next stage has begun in a long search for a luxury hotel in Dunedin.

The Dunedin City Council yesterday put the call out to developers interested in building a ‘‘highquality hotel complex’’ on a 6480sq m centralcity site on Moray Pl and Filleul St now used as a car park.

The council said it envisaged the design would incorporate streetlevel retail, allow for public car parking, and include facilities ‘‘normally associated with a fivestar hotel’’.

Tekapobased businessman Anthony Tosswill, whose hotel plan for the site was declined resource consent by commissioners in 2017, looks unlikely to apply.

The council anticipated developers might want to erect other buildings on the site as well as the hotel, or create a ‘‘development complex’’.

It had caveats to ensure the site was not landbanked.

Ideally, the developer would purchase the site, but other models were possible, the council said.

Enterprise Dunedin director John Christie said the council had multiple expressions of interest to develop hotels at the site.

‘‘The most open and fair approach was to widen that to allow everyone a fair shot.’’

A fivestar hotel would be ‘‘ideal’’, but it was also open to a ‘‘highquality’’ hotel and mix of apartments and retail spaces.

The council would want to work with developers sympathetic to the heritage nature of the area and the vision of the city’s future, he said.

‘‘But it’s also got to stack up in terms of a business case.’’

The site had a 16m height limit, and if developers wanted to build beyond that, it would have to be dealt with through the resource consent process.

The council did not want to discuss the sale price of the land at this stage.

Mr Tosswill said he would not apply unless issues he faced were resolved by the council.

During his consent hearing, Millennium & Copthorne, which owns the neighbouring Kingsgate Hotel, and nearby land owner Misbeary Holdings Ltd, which had links to the Scenic Circle Group, sent representatives to the hearings opposing the plans.

This process should not have been allowed as they had competing commercial interests, he said.

‘‘I can say to anybody else that if they want to go down the same track, and spend the sort of money that I’ve spent, it would be futile for them to do so because you will never get it while you have two opposing hoteliers trying to stop any hotels being erected.’’

Mr Christie said nothing major had changed in how these processes worked and developers would be prepared for potential public submissions and appeals.

Chamber of Commerce chief executive Dougal McGowan said there was a ‘‘bit of irony’’ in the council seeking development for the site considering the last failed bid.

He hoped past barriers to development would be ‘‘sorted’’ for future applicants so they were not put off future investment, like that sought for the harbourside development.

Proposals are accepted until December 6, and decisions would likely be put to the council to consider in early 2020.

From then, there were ‘‘several options’’ for how the council could proceed, Mr Christie said.