Second Hilton hotel for Chch

An office building in central Christchurch is to reopen as the city’s second Hilton hotel.

United States-based Hilton has announced it will open a hotel called The Modern on Hereford St just east of Oxford Tce by spring 2021. The Modern will be run by New Zealand hotel operator Sarin Group as a franchise under

Hilton’s Tapestry Collection brand. It will open in the former Guardian Assurance and Scorpio Books building, which is owned by property investor Ben Gough through his company Tailorspace Property. The company is repairing and refitting the earthquakedamaged building.

As well as guest rooms and suites, the hotel will have a ground-floor restaurant and bar, fitness centre, and on-site parking.

Hilton arrived in Christchurch in 2016 when it took over the Chateau

The hotel will feature large art prints by Christchurch and New Zealand artists.

on the Park hotel in Riccarton as part of its DoubleTree brand. The company has 6000 hotels in 117 countries and almost one million hotel rooms. Sarin Investments already operates two hotels for

Hilton in the North Island.

Tapestry Collection hotels are described by Hilton as upscale with ‘‘unique style and vibrant personality’’, and the Christchurch hotel will feature large art prints by Christchurch and New Zealand artists.

Raman Sarin, chairman of Sarin Investments, said the hotel would be ‘‘truly extraordinary and unlike anything else currently open or planned in Christchurch’’.

Other hotels under construction or conversion in the city include a boutique hotel at the Christchurch Arts Centre and another at 159 Manchester St, both to be run by the Sarin Group.

Also planned are three or four hotels at the Te Pae convention centre to be built by the Carter Group, and a six-storey hotel with 84 rooms on Tuam St.

Hotels opened this year include the 200-room Airport Novotel and the 86-room Sudima on Salisbury St. The Arden hotel, on the corner of Colombo and Salisbury streets, is built but not yet open.