HOTEL Town Hall… Another investment group, Daaave’s pals from the communist state?

ODT (via Channel 39) tells us that Dunedin City Council is discussing a proposal for another hotel in the city. This time, near the Town Hall.

For the Filleul Street/Moray Place car park site?

[ODT Link added 2.4.14] CBD may get new hotel

Together with the hotel project for 41 Wharf Street (Worstways), is Daaave intent on cutting off at the knees developer Geoff Thomson and the locally financed Distinction Dunedin Hotel? Oh probably.

Daaave’s that thick. And so is Staynes. Both men should not be in charge of this forsaken city. Staynes, will keep pumping the $20 million Dunedin airport runway extension. (The Chinese love investing in quiet ports and airports – why not sell them Dunedin Hospital too? And an aquarium where we can watch mermaids swim.)

If Worstways elected to piss off from the waterfront, the ‘Town Hall’ site or the Dowling Street carpark would count as sensible solutions for DCC to control height, townscape and cultural landscape.

City Property had better not be hocking off prime publicly-owned development sites to the overseas Horror Brigade. Of course they will, to meet the Council Debt CRISIS created by the criminal STADIUM build.

Or… City Property (in a new group guise) will do the hotel build and lease out to our ‘Mainland’ customers?

DUNEDIN IS UP FOR SALE by the IDIOT DCC which determinedly FAILS in business. Time and time again, while CLOSE MATES in the private sector accumulate wealth as they clip their tickets and pillage City Ratepayers and Residents.

Fail-proof DCC recipes for widening The GAP.

Exactly what you’d expect from the short-arsed mayor and his dumb-blond wine taster. Hospitality anyone? Nah, we’d rather go to Queenstown too.

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Subsequent to writing the above HYSTERIA, this was found at the DCC website. BINGO. We are DEAD.

SELL OUT STATEMENT PROPER
[How to raise property prices beyond the reach of Dunedin people and all New Zealanders (see Auckland issues) – recent tweets from Sophie Barker have been promoting Chanel O’Brien. Both Economic Development Unit babes-in-the-woods are taxed with selling this city from beneath our feet. Check their CVs. Then think about who the EDU manager is.]

Do note, The Prospectus, joke, will be distributed WITHOUT being formally approved by the elected Council.

Dunedin City Council – Media Release
Promoting Investment in Dunedin

This item was published on 01 Apr 2014

An investment prospectus has been developed for Dunedin to provide valuable information for potential investors.

The prospectus is a generic, high-level “fishing “document which aims to elicit interest from businesspeople who are considering options to expand their businesses and ex-pats thinking of returning to New Zealand. It also encourages high net worth individuals/investors from New Zealand and offshore to seek further information about opportunities in Dunedin.

Co-ordinated by the Dunedin City Council’s Economic Development Unit, the investment prospectus aligns with projects under the umbrella of Dunedin’s Economic Development Strategy.

DCC Business Development Advisor Chanel O’Brien says work on the prospectus has been carried out in collaboration with the City Investment Panel, which is developing a cohesive approach to investment in the city under the strategic theme of ‘business vitality’.

“In addition, the document aligns to another strategic objective, ‘linkages beyond our borders’, proactively attracting more businesses and investment into the city.”

After consultation with businesses, support agencies, the tertiary sector and skilled migrants, the prospectus focuses on the key areas of health and education across the tertiary and business sector.

The internationally-recognised research capacity of the University of Otago, coupled with the market validation and product development capacity of the Otago Polytechnic, is a focus of the document, along with a wide selection of businesses that have started and grown in the city. Opportunities are noted in areas such as education and learning, health technologies, design technology and niche manufacturing.

Ms O’Brien says the 37-page prospectus also features information on access to markets, infrastructure, resources, the regulatory environment, and business culture and lifestyle.

The investment prospectus has been endorsed by the City Investment Panel. This is a collaborative group of economic development partners, including New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, which is committed to generating market confidence and trust in Dunedin as a prime location for investment. The Panel also includes representatives from all the partners driving Dunedin’s Economic Development Strategy – the DCC, Ngāi Tahu, the Otago Chamber of Commerce, the Otago Polytechnic, the Otago Southland Employers Association and the University of Otago.

To see a copy of the prospectus, visit
www.dunedin.govt.nz/services/business-support.

The prospectus will go to the DCC’s Economic Development Committee on 7 April, for noting.

Contact Business Development Advisor on 03 477 4000.

DCC Link

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin’s former Chief Post Office

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### ODT Online Sat, 22 Jun 2013
Post office conversion ready to go
By Hamish McNeilly
A multimillion-dollar project to transform the former Dunedin chief post office has been delivered. Work on converting the 10-storey heritage building into a 120-apartment hotel and office space for Silver Fern Farms and other commercial tenants could begin within weeks.

Building owner Geoff Thomson, of Distinction Hotels, told the Otago Daily Times: “I just love the building and it was just about trying to find a way to make it stack up.”

Arrow International would spearhead the fit-out of the office space and hotel and the construction of a multilevel car park at the rear of the building. The four-star plus Distinction Dunedin hotel project would cost more than $15 million, but those involved with the project declined to confirm a figure.
However, the anchor tenancy of Silver Fern Farms, which would occupy the first two floors, and unnamed commercial tenants the third floor, would help to “underpin the building”, Mr Thomson said.
The commercial floors would be fitted out by the end of the year. Construction of a three-storey car park on its Bond St car park at the rear of the building would also be done by then. Designs had yet to be finalised for the remaining seven floors of the hotel apartments.
Read more

[history and significance]
█ Heritage New Zealand (HNZ) registration report: List No. 2145 (Category II)

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Related Posts and Comments:
16.3.10 Public meeting: planning the future of Dunedin heritage buildings [updates on SFF]
2.7.12 Demolition by neglect. Townscape precincts.
6.12.11 Distinction Hotels: more work on former Chief Post Office
5.3.11 Former Chief Post Office, Dunedin – magazine feature . . .
14.8.10 No surprises with former CPO redevelopment
27.5.10 Distinction Dunedin: former chief post office
12.5.10 DScene – Geoff Thomson buys back former CPO
11.5.10 DCC Media Release – Chief Post Office
10.11.09 Dunedin public library services
23.10.09 Weekend ODT looks at The Exchange
3.9.09 Dunedin Public Library feasibility
26.8.09 DScene: Delta, STS, DCC larks
20.7.09 DCC + former CPO + others(??) = a public library (yeah right)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: (from top) topnews.net.nz – Dunedin Chief Post Office, 283 Princes Street, Dunedin; distinctionhotels.co.nz – thumbnail; rootsweb.ancestry.com – 1930s b/w

D Scene: fubar, another revelation

“Forsyth Barr have had the advantage of over two-and-a-half years of advertising locally, nationally and internationally without digging into their own pockets.” -Bev Butler

### D Scene 9.5.12
Up in lights – you paid (page 5)
By Wilma McCorkindale
Dunedin ratepayers borrowed money to cover naming rights funding while waiting for Forsyth Barr to stump up for Dunedin’s stadium. The revelation comes from stadium critic Bev Butler who said official documented forecasts showed under the original deal with the Carisbrook Stadium Trust, Forsyth Barr’s payments were ‘‘effectively two years overdue’’ by the time of its first single monthly payment towards naming rights in September 1, 2011. Details gleaned under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act showed Forsyth Barr made no payments until September 1, 2011, Butler said. “It is now plain that the much heralded millions of dollars promised upfront in 2009 by Forsyth Barr for the naming rights to the new Dunedin stadium just never happened.”
{continues} #bookmark

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Losing friends (page 6)
By Mike Houlahan – Editor
As biting the hand that feeds you goes, the lawsuit members of the Otago Rugby Football Union are proposing to take against Mayor Dave Cull takes some beating. The merits of the case are for the court to decide, but there is a different burden of proof in the court of public opinion. With its very existence hanging on the good grace of the Dunedin City Council – which decided, against strong public sentiment, to forgive half a million dollars of ORFU debt ratepayers could ill-afford to write off – the rugby union needed to be apologetic, and forthright in dealing with the circumstances which got it in trouble.
{conmtinues} #bookmark

Register to read D Scene online at
http://fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com/

Moneytalks : Business News
Dunedin extends helping hand (page 9)
By Paul Gorman and Mike Houlahan
Dunedin is gearing up to play a major role in the rebuild of Christchurch but is aware of the risks of losing tradespeople and future business further north. The South Island’s second city is positioning itself to supply materials and services to Christchurch while recognising the Canterbury earthquakes have also affected its economy. There is also a proposal to provide special train services to carry workers between the two cities. The Dunedin City Council has calculated that the expected $20 billion to $30b cost of the rebuild is up to 6.6 times Dunedin’s total annual gross domestic product. Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Christie said Dunedin was not eyeing up Christchurch opportunities in any ‘‘predatory manner’’, but having a strong Christchurch was good for the South Island.
{continues} #bookmark

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Distinction Hotels: more work on former Chief Post Office

Initial plans for the Distinction Dunedin included 180 rooms and suites, restaurants, bars, conference facilities, a business centre, gym, as well as a lap pool.

### ODT Online Tue, 6 Dec 2011
Steelwork spans new space
By Hamish McNeilly
As an airy new space is created with major engineering work at Dunedin’s former chief post office, the building’s developer is praising the city’s potential. Geoff Thomson, of Distinction Hotels, said contractors were yesterday putting in place steel beams over the top of a new conference centre area for the four-star redevelopment. The roof over the conference centre was likely to be completed by Christmas, after work to replace the main roof was completed earlier this year.
Read more

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Related Comments:
16.3.10 Public meeting: planning the future of Dunedin heritage buildings

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

amalgamation, Anyone?

Would you trust your own mother with the information that Dunedin City Council (DCC) is fully debt laden, that is, stony broke? You should.

Also, tell her DCC has no insurance for infrastructure assets, which badly need upgrade and replacement. Prettily, DCC has a new stadium that’s bleeding millions of dollars annually and it will continue to do so for years and years and years. She’ll want to know that each DCC ratepayer is now carrying five to six times the debt burden of the average New Zealand ratepayer.

The list goes on. She’ll love you for it.

Or would you hide this from her and pretend a forensic audit of the Council books wasn’t needed – so to foster happy collaborations (comings together) with ‘super’ fellow cities, as if Dunedin was level-pegging?

Dear god, your Dunedin ratepayer base is around 53,000. A high proportion of the population is low-waged and or receiving some sort of benefit assistance. The majority of citizens live in ‘old, cold and costly’ houses. Fatally, your Council keeps borrowing like there’s no tomorrow.

Definitely grounds for inter-city collaboration and blending there. If other cities want to share our deep impoverishment due to Council’s continuing lack of fiduciary responsibility, roll on up. Ignore our weaknesses and transgressions, love your mother and the useless council despots.

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Register to read D Scene online at
http://fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com/

### D Scene 30-11-11 (page 5)
Add it up
Dunedin City Council Economic Development Unit and Corporate Policy department is working on the first draft of a central government project to compare the economies of 6 core NZ cities. Due for completion in early December, the project analyses economic and social information about the cities, highlighting strengths and areas for potential collaboration between them. The project is being led by the Ministry for Economic Development and Local Government New Zealand. #bookmark

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC self-examinations…

### ODT Online Wed, 17 Aug 2011
Project Gateway on hold
By David Loughrey
Project Gateway – an initiative that has cost the Dunedin City Council $3.5 million over the last decade – will be put on hold and “reviewed” after results that have fallen well short of initial goals.

Despite early hopes of attracting 60,000 visitors a year, creating 555 jobs and opening up a market worth $21 million, council economic development unit manager Peter Harris said it had instead sparked sales of about $4.6 million, and helped create “around 34 jobs”.

Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin contributes more than 50% of Otago’s employment

### ODT Online Sat, 3 Apr 2010
City needs numbers, say experts
By Simon Hartley
The closure of Fisher and Paykel Appliances’ Mosgiel plant and loss of 430 jobs in early 2008 prompted a reduction in Dunedin’s gross domestic product for 2009, and the city remains dogged by low population growth. However, a report by Berl for Otago Forward, covering 2009, noted per capita growth had kept pace with national trends and the city’s education and research sector, which employs one in eight people in the city, also delivered employment and GDP growth above national trends.

The emphasis for Dunedin manufacturing had to remain on high-end niche market production.

Read more

Post by Elizabeth Kerr