New city central hotel step closer as consent hearings to begin

The Invercargill Licensing Trust’s dream of a new city central hotel is a step closer to reality with resource consent hearings set to begin on Wednesday.

At an ILT board meeting on Thursday, chief executive Chris Ramsay said he was confident everything had been done to prepare for the hearings and he was hopeful for a positive outcome. ‘‘We’ve done all the work we could have at this point. We enter the hearing having done full assessments and confident we will be able to answer any questions we get asked.’’

If all went to plan, demolition would begin in early February, with construction expected to begin in August or September, Ramsay said.

‘‘I’ve got to give [Invercargill city] council credit to the sense that the process, they’ve followed it, they’ve been collaborative, they’ve worked with us. It’s been very good.’’

In the initial public consultation, some concerns were raised by businesses around the build process.

Invercargill airport’s concern of crane height had been addressed, with engineers showing how the crane would stay below the 46 metre height maximum, he said. ‘‘They’re happy, so they’ve come back with a letter of support.

Closing out the design stage would be an important phase as that would determine the next cost estimates, Ramsay said. The next step for the hotel would be to bring in quantity surveyors to develop those cost estimates.

The aerial of Radio Southland was another issue which Ramsay believed had been resolved.

That issues had been worked out with the potential to move the aerial to the Kelvin Hotel, Ramsay said.

Three days of hearings will begin on Wednesday.