Five-Star hotel in Pacifica tower
Agents are describing the The Pacifica Boutique Hotel — a new five-star hotel in central Auckland — as one of the city’s tallest and most luxurious residential towers.
The hotel which is to operate within the tower is now on the market for sale — being marketed by Warren Hutt and Peter Hamilton of CBRE for developers Hengyi Pacific.
The hotel, at 10-12 Commerce St in the CBD, is to be sold by expressions of interest, closing 4pm on June 18.
Hutt says with tourist numbers into Auckland rising constantly, and few hotels being created in Auckland’s CBD, this is an exceptional opportunity for hotel investors and owner operators, in terms of its quality and its prime downtown location.
He believes the Pacifica Boutique Hotel, in the 57-storey Pacifica tower, will redefine the quality of central city hotels in Auckland, bringing elegance and style right into the heart of the CBD.
“This will be a 5-star minimum hotel, a top-end boutique offering. The hotel is a stone’s throw from Auckland’s waterfront and Britomart, and there is the opportunity to brand it to suit the high-end market.”
The hotel will have 35 rooms over six floors, from first to sixth floors, with generous room sizes ranging from 30sq m to 60sq m. There may also be an opportunity to add additional rooms by way of a management agreement over apartments within the tower.
Guests will have access to amenities including gym, swimming pool, sauna, spa, steam room and community terrace — all on level 7.
Hamilton sees many opportunities for the new owner to adapt and manage a number of elements within the offering.
“Firstly, they can fit the hotel out to their own preferences. Secondly, on the ground floor will be the dedicated hotel lobby and an opportunity for food and beverage offering facing Commerce St, which can also be acquired as part of the sale.
“Further, they have the opportunity to take on the overall concierge management of the tower, including the 1,188sq m twolevel super-premium penthouse on level 53 and 54, which is now being marketed internationally.
“We see this hotel being of real interest to local and international hotel owner operators, as well as the owners and operators of highend lodges.
“This would give them a prime footprint in Auckland’s CBD to cater for guests arriving into New Zealand, before taking them on elsewhere into the country.
“The successful purchaser can also set up management agreements with individual apartment investors — so the opportunity to grow the number of keys within the building is definitely there.”
Hutt adds that construction of the tower is well under way and is due to be complete in late 2020, in time for the 2021 America’s Cup.
He says the sale will enable the new owner to capitalise on Auckland’s booming hotel market, which is being powered by rapidly rising international visitor numbers into New Zealand and limited new hotel supply.
“Auckland’s hotel market is consistently outperforming, both in terms of room rates and occupancy, due to a lack of new supply over a number of years resulting in a booming market for hotels.
“This is partly due to consistently rising international visitor numbers to New Zealand. We’ve seen annual increases almost every year since the 1990s. There were approximately 3.82 million visitor arrivals to New Zealand in the year to March 2018, up 7.8 per cent from the previous year, and international visitor arrivals have increased on average by 8.5 per cent p.a. since 2014.
“The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment forecasts international visitor arrivals to increase to 5.1m by 2024.