Supermarket chain buys hotel
THE Foodstuffs supermarket chain has bought Lower Hutt’s Exchange Hotel to make room for expansion of its Waterloo Rd New World property.
The Exchange Hotel, which was operated by the Trinity Group, closed with a wake at the weekend.
The Queens Dr hotel and the adjoining Two Black Sheep Cafe back on to the New World supermarket car park and demolition would provide room for its expansion.
Foodstuffs Wellington property and retail development manager Marty Price said it had been bought for future expansion and development purposes.
‘‘No demolition, planning, designs or discussions with Hutt City Council have occurred as yet, neither has timing of any redevelopment,’’ Price said.
The Exchange, a vintage hotel formerly known as the King’s Cross, failed to sell when it was put on the market nearly two years ago by its Australian owner, PHG.
The 1900-square-metre property has an 80-metre frontage on the corner of Queens Dr and Kings Cres and would significantly extend New World’s footprint on its site, which is just across Waterloo Rd from the Queensgate Mall.
Colliers International agent Michelle Spiers would not say how much the hotel property sold for as Foodstuffs regarded it as confidential.
However, she described it as a good strategic buy.
The property had a 2010 rating value of $3.65 million, with the land value assessed at $2m.
It is understood that Foodstuffs paid less than $2.5m for the property.
The Black Sheep Cafe recently went into liquidation and Trinity Group managing director Jeremy Smith said the hotel, which the company continued to operate after the property was sold to ING Entertainment Fund in 2007, had been struggling for some time.