Battle to rebuild hotel lost
Plans to replicate a demolished 1880s hotel in central Christchurch have been abandoned after a long heritage battle.
Developers who bought the Excelsior Hotel site on condition of replacing the building say they have been unable to make the plan work and are selling the land.
The site is understood to be under offer to a potential buyer.
A covenant requiring the building to be replicated has been removed from the property’s title, with the agreement of heritage authorities.
The hotel was damaged in the
2011 quakes and bought that year for $1.35 million by the Christchurch Heritage Trust.
The trust exists to preserve threatened heritage buildings by finding new owners and uses for them.
It called demolition of the Excelsior ‘‘unthinkable’’.
However, most of the damaged Excelsior was demolished in late
2011 with only one side of the facade left behind shipping containers. The trust had plans drawn up to replicate the building.
Then in 2016 the trust sold the site, on the corner of High and
Manchester streets, for $1.73m to a company part-owned by developers Canterbury Property Investments Ltd (CPI) with the replacement covenant in place.
The trust had bought and onsold the building previously, having rescued it from demolition in the 1990s before selling it to be run as backpacker lodge and bar.
CPI expected to spend $10m on the replica, and demolished the remaining piece of the facade in preparation. At one stage the company was in talks with the Quest apartment hotel chain about a potential lease.
The land is currently in use as a Wilson Parking site.
CPI director Miles Yeoman said the land was now on the market as the company could no longer complete the project ‘‘in the current environment’’ and needed the money for other projects under way. The price is negotiable.
‘‘We did have a hospitality tenant for the ground floor, but that wasn’t enough to get the building built.’’
There was insufficient demand for office space, and new flooding rules required the new building to be elevated, making it unsuitable for retail use, Yeoman said.
‘‘It’s a great site and there’s been good interest. It will be interesting to see how it goes.’’