Apartment hotel proposal has FATAL Flaws : ODT offers Flimsy Poll

Updated post.
Tue, 7 Aug 2017 at 2:58 p.m.

We (Dunedin) are confronted by a poorly detailed, plonk-down apartment building proposal that we suspect is fronted by an agent for Asian developers –it would not be unusual for such a proposal to be offered on the strength of tainted money looking for safe haven in the South Pacific.

Our gullible country.
The gullible shiny pants Grow Dunedin partnership.
Our ever so gullible city council under the leadership of cull-cat Cull.

A massively over-height apartment building with a frilly hard-to-read podium base is proposed —a building that may never see a five star hotel as the anchor tenant (never believe unquantified/unqualified pitches from used car salesmen, if all they offer is a Price plucked from the air).

Not so long ago large tracts of New Zealand land were bought and sold for glass beads and muskets.

A lot can happen between resource consent being granted and a deathly, failing, improperly costed build.

Is Dunedin City Council about to find out.

Beware the gift horse.
It turned out Dunedin disliked the hocks of the last one (41 Wharf St), ridden by a little cardigan-wearer. The local suits were paid to make the waterfront tower seem generous, rousing and necessary. Ha-haaa.

At ALL times, the Dunedin City Council MUST stay acutely awake despite its needful dependence on independent commissioners and independent professional advisors – the latter advisors, along with some council staff, appear to have greatly missed the Fact that the minimal concept plans presented for 143-193 Moray Place DO NOT provide a workable building; or a building compliant with district plan objectives, policies, rules, and anticipated environmental results ….or prevailing traffic standards.

Oh dear. ‘So much’ [$$$] for the independent advice. Yes, expensive use of expert and staff time to massage the applicant dream – to no convincing or winning effect.

Further, Dunedin City Council MUST be prepared to APPEAL the outcome of the decision-making process should it wish to AVOID being left with another expensive DEBT VEHICLE in the form of one unfinished and or leaky building …..as the collapsed companies, and dusty heels of run-away developers and construction personnel disappear back to Asian shores, far away from Lake Tekapo ….. dangerously constructed, whole or in part, as a further burden on beleaguered Ratepayers of this fair city.

“What a stupid thing to assume!” you thunder.
“How? On what grounds?”, you chide.
“Dunedin NEEDS a five star hotel!”, imperiously.

You think it’s that simple ??
You’re about to be done over, Buds.

The inference being, oh great apartment hotel supporters, that all that glistens in green-tinted glass is gold, or might be a five star hotel. Yeah right.

It never was. The gold, I mean.
The five star hotel, I mean.
A hoover-up of NZ cash to offshore parties who remain anonymous throughout planning and consenting, and construction and building operation; all supported by the errant notion of immigrant labour and (imperfect) imported materials.

You might as well ask now, How MUCH will the Dunedin economy make ($$$) on this “slap in the face” to the community owned district plan (statutory), and the (strategic) spatial and the central city plans which are publicly consulted policy directions informing the city council’s annual and long term plans.

Not much.

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During five days of evidence and submissions, one knowledgeable submitter, Mr Russell Lund – well up on construction management, hotel building costs, the visitor accommodation market and investment patterns, and the risk and liability to local authorities in consequence – carefully outlined the quandaries which for various councils around New Zealand have become money-losing Unalterable Fact.

In the original written submission for himself and Suzanne Lund (affected property owners), Mr Lund asserted:

The “assessment of effects” is hollow and of no substance. Under the Act, the assessment of effects is required to be just that, an assessment of effects on the affected properties and tenants. Incredibly, the assessment makes no attempt to examine the effects on all the affected parties.

This, of course, is echoed in independently written and voiced submissions by many opposing the application; and curiously, it is underlined in evidence given by Mr Don Anderson (planning consultant) and Mr David Compton-Moen (urban design, visual amenity consultant), for the applicant.

My own submission to hearing states:

We can’t take what is offered [from the applicant] on trust, because it is incomplete and imprecise; therefore the assessment of effects is difficult to pin down to anything concrete and remains unhelpfully superficial – this was “the work” the applicant was to table for us, we thought, to generously persuade us that moving beyond the ‘norms’ of height in this Dunedin location has measurable benefits against other sites or, through strong honest examination of design alternatives for this site.

I am open to being persuaded. It is expensive to do that persuading. However, it has to happen in other city centres in this country. For an expensive building, isn’t it worth doing the budgeting for preparation of your case – to get the result you want, which is consent to subdivide and build. These are open questions but they lie at the heart of A for architecture as the practical art and science of building economics and professional practice. Behind and in front of the commercial facades, that must have depth of delivery. […] And so I come to the white building model here [a 3D-printed solid plastic model of the proposed building, of hand-held size, put into evidence by Christchurch architect Thom Craig], and the drawings presented by the applicant. There appears to have been too much time spent on merely diagrammatic ‘entreaties’ to architectural form and texture without hacking into 3D investigation. There is not one clear drawing of the way the podium can work for the public or the ‘retailers’ or ‘exhibitors’ – or indeed the people staying at the hotel, servicing the building functions and or using vehicles on site. We get an idea ‘about it’, a not convincing one, there is too much guesswork to do. And so the commissioners’ questions have been rather intense.

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Now, back to the points the Lunds are making. In their original submission on the application, Mr Lund says:

7. I have serious concerns about the expertise and amount of resource that has gone into assessing the feasibility of the project. In the last year, the Otago Daily Times advised the developer, Mr Tosswill of Horizon Hospitality, had indicated that the cost of the project, which was then 200 rooms and 52 apartments was $50-75M. The proposal now is for 210 rooms and 66 apartments, which is not substantially different. The car parking and front of house areas are similar to the original application. The application confirms the hotel has a gross floor area of 20,835 m2.
In my opinion this hotel will be not built for anything less than around $100M, and this casts serious doubts over the viability of the scheme.
Evidence of this is found for the building costs of the much simpler 200 room 4 star Novotel Hotel being built at Christchurch airport after a competitive tender process (and utilising an Asian fabricated structural steel structure). It is well known in the building industry that the tender costs received for that very regular and efficient 7 level hotel were $4,500-5,000 per m2. The Novotel is a filing cabinet design, that is, it is a completely regular rectangular structure which provides the most efficient floorplates and the best wall to floor ratio, ie the least amount of exterior wall enclosing the maximum possible amount of interior space. The Novotel has no balconies.
The applicant’s proposal is far less efficient, and therefore more costly per m2, as it is effectively three blocks grouped around a central core, but the blocks themselves are not rectangular, but have recesses, and there is a significant amount of extra cost with most rooms having screened “smokers” balconies, which entails effectively, 2 exterior systems, one for the rooms, and another enclosing the balconies.

8. The application confirms there are 16,136 m2 of above ground (habitable or hospitality space) and 4,687 m2 of below ground, back of house / car park space. At a cost of $2,200-2,500 per m2 for the below ground floors, and $5,500 per m2 for the above ground space, the proposal has a construction cost of over $100m, excluding land, furnishings, design marketing, et al. The total budget excluding GST will be around $130M. A feasibility study will typically have to include a development margin of at least 20 %, preferably 25 %, if any sort of lender is involved. This means the end value of the project will need to be at or over $160M. If the best case scenario is adopted and Mr Tosswill is able to convince Chinese or other overseas investors to pay the current market value in Queenstown for premium, new managed hotel rooms and apartments of $10,000 per m2 – for a hotel with an unproven demand in Dunedin, it is still not enough.
Selling all the apartments and hotel rooms will yield about $90M, which is a long, long way from the $160M end value needed. The parking and lower public floor spaces on a yield basis will have a value of around $10M, that might get the project to $100M. Mr Tosswill in earlier reports stated that the value was around $90M, so while there is broad agreement on the likely end value, the estimate of the cost is not close to reality. Mr Tosswill may be planning to bring in a Chinese construction company who will park a retired cruise ship at the waterfront for the duration of the project and have their workers stay there, but they will be subject to the same minimum wage laws, working conditions and health and safety requirements that local companies face, which will dramatically reduce any cost benefit from using overseas labour. (The idea of having a cruise ship accommodating Chinese workers is not fanciful – the Chinese government offered to repair the damaged sections of SH1 after last year’s Kaikoura earthquake using that same method, and did not require any New Zealand labour resources, but the Government decided that this was politically unacceptable). One hopes it would be also unacceptable to have a Council endorsed project built using essentially, forced labour.

9. There is sufficient doubt around the financial viability of the project that the applicant should provide some evidence that the entire scheme is not in fact fanciful, but makes economic sense, and provide details about the proposed ownership model, which is highly relevant to Council, in light of their liability which is discussed below.

10. Mr Tosswill may think he is able to make savings from current building costs by utilising Chinese products, but many Local Authorities around New Zealand are very wary of various untested products as there have been many failures for which Local Authorities ultimately end up bearing the cost of.
This raises another issue which is the massive liability that the building control division of the Dunedin City Council will be exposed to, in relation to its building consent approval and compliance monitoring. The experience of the QLDC in recent years is extremely relevant : A large number of hotel and apartments have been built in Queenstown and the individual hotel rooms and apartments are sold off individually. A body corporate is then responsible for repairs and maintenance. The developer has no long term or permanent stake in the completed structure, and therefore no incentive to specify materials and pay for quality standards with the long term in mind. As Warren Buffet has said, “show me the incentive and I will show you the result”, and the result for QLDC has been an ongoing series of legal actions brought by Body Corporates against Council, alleging that Council was at fault in some form, and as they are the “last man standing”, the Council have inevitably had to pay substantial figures. [I have] experience of several of these, having repaired one major complex in Queenstown at a cost of several million dollars, and provided cost evidence in regard to two others, also in Queenstown in the last year. It should be remembered that QLDC has a 7 metre height limit, but despite this, on complexes less than a quarter of the size of the proposed hotels, the cost to repair has run to millions. QLDC has advised this year in the Otago Daily Times that it has now completely drained its reserve fund for remedial building work, and any further costs will need to come directly from ratepayers. It has spent $3.6M just on legal fees for remedial building liability cases, which will rise to close to $4M by the end of this year.

11. At the Hearing, in submission, some proposals will be presented to show how the design liability and weathertightness risk to Council and ratepayers can be mitigated in the unlikely event that the proposal is given consent and such consent is upheld in the Environment Court.

Proposal 1 : A bond be posted with Council to cover sufficient funds to get the building to completed weathertight envelope and have the podium and all external works completed in the event the project is halted.

Proposal 2 : The applicant provide a Owners Protective Professional Indemnity, and have DCC named as an insured party on the policy. This is to protect indemnify the DCC against any claims brought against them in relation the building consent process, compliance monitoring or any matter for which they are liable for.

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The applicant tabled NEW evidence at the hearing, from Infometrics. At its website, Infometrics (NZ) says it “provides industry, regional, and general economic analysis and forecasts that assist organisations in making their planning, policy, and strategic decisions”.

In the Lunds’ submission to hearing under the subheading ‘Dunedin Hotel Economic Impacts – Ongoing GDP Effects’, Mr Lund says:

….Infometrics assume that the 64 apartments will all be in the hotel pool, but acknowledge this is unclear. This significantly increases the GDP contribution as it raises the income of the hotel by around 40%, assuming conservative tariff rates of $250 per night and $350 per night per apartment. Infometrics also assume that there will be no “crowding out” of the existing activity, ie ALL guests would otherwise have not come to Dunedin had this hotel not been there. This is an unrealistic assumption.
In my opinion this report is an example of tailoring assumptions to achieve the desired outcome.
At Section 2, the “impact” of the construction phase is estimated at $45.6M in total, but based on the “key assumption” that there is capacity in the construction sector to build the hotel without crowding out other investment”. This appears to mean that if other projects are delayed, there is in fact no benefit at all because $63M of other projects will simply be displaced by the alleged $63M cost of this project. History shows that in Dunedin, Clients such as the DCC, University and some private clients keep a close eye on the state of the market. Many Ministry of Education projects have strict cost guidelines, and will not proceed if they are over budget. There have been examples of work deferred in Dunedin when the market is busy, and the Post Office Hotel is one of them. The Owner Mr Geoff Thompson, deferred the construction of the hotel for several years when he first owned the property citing the overheated construction market, due to the construction of the $220M Milton Prison project in 2005-2007.
At the present time, there is a high level of commercial construction activity at present, witnessed by the fact that there are main contractors from outside Dunedin performing the 2 largest projects in Dunedin (The Dental School and the University Science 3 project). There is every likelihood some projects will be delayed due to the high level of activity.
The report assumes that 21.1M of the $63M, or a third of the cost, will flow into the local Dunedin economy. This would be on the basis that local companies and suppliers are employed, but this is far from clear, given the estimated cost of $63M. The only way the cost could be anywhere near this level is if virtually all of the materials were low cost imports, and quite likely a proportion of the labour cost component.
The only significant material that will be made locally is concrete, and it is only the basement levels that will be predominantly a concrete structure. If out of region companies were employed for work to do such trades as painting and carpentry, as they were at the Forsyth Barr stadium, then that figure will not be accurate.
Infometrics then ascribe $16.1M to the “second round of economic effects” but acknowledge there is some “leakage of spending outside the city”. If an outside main contractor, or even an overseas contractor completes the work, they will very likely bring with them their out of town networks of subcontractors and suppliers and there will be much less than the $16.1M as the second round of effects. Having completed many projects out of Dunedin, I have first hand knowledge of the negligible economic effect of construction on the region concerned. Generally, goods and services are sourced from habitual suppliers with whom there is an ongoing relationship, and only the small consumables are sourced from local suppliers.
Mr Tosswill should clarify what the intention is regarding the construction of the hotel, and if that is not forthcoming, then he should at least confirm what type and form of construction contract will be used as that perhaps more than anything will determine whether there is the possibility of a meaningful local business component.

On ‘Construction Cost’, Mr Lund refers the commissioners to the Lunds’ original submission, continuing with:

Further facts about construction
Examples of risk from imported products
FCC (Fletcher) budgeted to use Chinese sourced bathrooms in the Novotel Christchurch projects. Did not work. Has cost FCC $2M extra (unbudgeted) to get prefab bathrooms built locally in Canterbury. The cost is $26,000 per bathroom.
Chinese steel : there are 2 major CBD projects underway in Christchurch that are steel structures using Chinese fabricated steel. On one project the steel is 12 weeks late and on the other it is 16 weeks late. The Chinese suppliers had committed to make the steel, then out-sourced it to another firm without advising the contractor, and the delays have resulted. On one of these projects there is now legal action between the Engineer and contractor because of the nature of the steel does not conform to the specification.
There is a further major dispute litigation on another major project now completed due to extreme delays with the steelwork and external cladding. The project was around 10 months late, and the Owner lost the anchor tenant (The Government) due to the delay. That project was tendered on the basis of using a large degree of imported materials from China in association with a large state run Chinese construction company, but the project was so disastrous (financially and in terms of market perception), involving a loss of 8-15M on a $50M project, it has caused the company to withdraw from large scale commercial construction and focus on project management.
External Cladding : There are only a very small number of NZ firms with the capability to design and build the curtain walling, and they have a huge backlog and extremely onerous business terms that will not be acceptable to any funder or main contractor, so the Owner will probably need to contract with them direct, and take on this risk.

These important matters aside, the legal submissions brought to hearing by Ms Lauren Semple (for Millenium & Copthorne Hotels) and Mr John Hardie (for Misbeary Holdings Ltd) blew the application out of the water; so did the transport evidence to hearing by Mr Andy Carr (for Millenium & Copthorne Hotels) to which Commissioner Mr Stephen Daysh responded by asking if the problems (such as summit points, swept paths, access to basement parking, onsite coach travel, and truck travel as well as loading access) pointed out by Mr Carr in his assessment of the proposed building’s perimeter road were “fatal flaws”? Yes, was the direct reply. Refer article: Traffic problems at hotel (ODT 3.8.17)

The hearing is adjourned until 17 August.

All ODT can do is offer a flimsy and inconsequential readers’ poll.
Not Based On Reality. Go ODT! LOL

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█ All application documents, reports, evidence and submissions for 143-193 Moray Place – Non-complying activity – LUC-2017-48 & Sub-2017-26 at this link.

Related Posts and Comments:
● 11.7.17 “Fat” gawky Hotel and Apartment building : Questionable design even with 4 floors lopped off
● 14.5.17 RNZ reports July hearings for proposed hotel apartment building [comments by Mr Tosswill]
● 4.5.17 Submissions close 10 May : Proposed 17-storey, est. 62.5 metres-high Moray Place hotel/apartment building
● 7.4.17 Proposed hotel *height and design* —the very least of it #sellingoursouls
● 5.6.17 Application lodged for FIASCO Hotel by Tosswill #DunedinWrecks
● 18.12.16 DCC set to take away CBD car parks without Economic Impact research
● 15.10.16 Battle of the hotels : DCC meat in the sandwich (unedifying)
● 5.10.16 Dunedin bauble #votecatcher
● 4.10.16 The Demon Duck freak show of partial ‘Civic’ information! Before voting closes! #Dunedin
11.1.16 Un hôtel. Dunedin.
19.8.15 Hotels ? Business ? [DCC lost +++152 fleet vehicles] —Cull in charge of building chicken coops, why ?
1.4.14 HOTEL Town Hall… Another investment group, Daaave’s pals from the communist state?
25.3.14 Hotel We LIKE: Distinction Dunedin Hotel at former CPO

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

█ The following images are taken from Appendix 6 – Consultant Urban Designer’s Report – Appendix plans (PDF, 1.5 MB).

They comprise
● 2 cross sections – originally provided as applicant evidence by Thom Craig Architects Ltd, and
● 7 photomontages of anticipated views – originally provided as applicant evidence by Paterson Pitts Group (surveying, planning, engineering)

– to which new height levels have been added in the evidence provided by independent Urban Design consultant Garth Falconer for Dunedin City Council.

[click to enlarge]

“Fat” gawky Hotel and Apartment building : Questionable design even with 4 floors lopped off

What environmental considerations, Mr Page?

More than minor.

[Everyone will remember the learned Mr Page from the Betterways hotel and apartment building application for 41 Wharf St at the waterfront, not so long ago.]

Mr Bryce (independent planner): …a “key concern” for submitters…the building would block sun from reaching the Regent Theatre and surrounds from 3pm at winter solstice. “At this time of year, the proposal will effectively remove all remaining access to sunlight received over [the] southern end of the western side of the Octagon.” (ODT)

Mr Page (the developer’s ‘Brief’): The “potential shading effect” was acknowledged, but Mr Page was confident the hotel’s benefits “will far outweigh” those concerns. (ODT)

Mr Page, again : The hotel’s “tall, slender built form” minimised the impact on those living closest to the hotel project site… (ODT)

Good heavens.

Source: Application documents

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At Facebook:

### ODT Online Tue, 11 July 2017
Hotel developer still confident
By Chris Morris
Dunedin’s latest five-star hotel bid will “not be viable” if the developer is forced to reduce the building’s height, it has been claimed. But the man behind the project, Tekapo businessman Anthony Tosswill, remains confident the hearings panel set to decide the project’s fate can yet be swayed by the hotel’s benefits. The comments came from Phil Page, the lawyer acting for Mr Tosswill, days after the public release of an independent planner’s report running the ruler over the hotel proposal.
The report by Nigel Bryce concluded consent be declined unless Mr Tosswill agreed to a “substantial reduction” in the building’s height, by four storeys, to bring it down from 60m to 45.5m.
Read more

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Resource Consent Application LUC 2017-48 and SUB 2017-26, 143 – 193 Moray Place, Dunedin (Proposed Hotel)

The hearing will be held on Mon 31 Jul, Tue 1 Aug, Wed 2 Aug, Thu 3 Aug and Fri 4 Aug 2017 in the Edinburgh Room, Municipal Chambers (off the Octagon). The hearing will commence at 9.30 am each day.

█ Consultant Planner’s Section 42a Report (PDF, 4.3 MB)

[excerpt]

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATION
[5] For the reasons set out in paragraphs 72 to 334 below, I consider that the Proposal in its current form, will not promote the sustainable management of natural and physical resources in accordance with Part 2 of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA or the Act).
[6] The Development promotes a contemporary design, which is considered acceptable within this setting and articulates sufficient design interest and modulation through the facades and its pinwheel like form expressed in the tower component of the building. The building’s design incorporates a base building or podium, which allows the structure to have an active street frontage to Moray Place and Filleul Street, which is considered a positive design response.
[7] The Development will be ‘juxtaposed’ against a backdrop of the heritage buildings located to the east of Moray Place, including the Town Hall and St Paul’s Cathedral when viewed from the west and St Paul’s Cathedral and the Municipal Chambers when viewed from the south (including from the Octagon).
[8] The building’s overall height is considered to generate an over-dominance on properties to the north and west of the Site, and will have more than minor adverse effects on the amenity values of residential properties to the west of the Site. This is largely due to the significant change in scale introduced by the Development and the lower scale built environment that currently exists to the west and north of the development site, comprising predominantly two to three storeys in height.
[9] The Development will adversely impact upon the townscape values of the TH02 Octagon townscape precinct under the Operative Dunedin City District Plan (Operative Plan), including loss of sunlight penetration into the Octagon during the Winter Solstice and will adversely impact upon the setting and pre-eminence of existing heritage buildings such as the St Paul’s Cathedral and the Municipal Chambers building when viewed from the Octagon.
[10] The Development is considered to result in more than minor visual amenity and shading effects on Kingsgate Hotel to the south of the Site. The Kingsgate Hotel will experience prolonged and more sustained loss of light over a wider part of the property and associated buildings over the critical morning period during the Equinox and Winter Solstice periods (or collectively over ¾ of the year). This conclusion has been reached having regard to the potential for the Site to be developed up to a maximum height of 11 metres with a building erected against all boundaries (the ‘controlled activity building outline’).
[11] For the scale of the building to be mitigated to an acceptable level, and to maintain and enhance the amenity values of the City Centre and wider environs, Council’s urban design consultant, Mr [Garth] Falconer recommends reducing the proposed building height by four levels to bring the total height down to nine storeys (Level 13, +157,500 (datum level) on Drawing Section AA). This reduction would provide for a maximum height of 45.6 metres from existing ground level, or a maximum height breach of 34.4 metres (including the lift shaft). This mitigation response would not remove any of the 210 visitor accommodation rooms (hotel rooms), and would maintain supporting facilities including licensed premises, retail, conference, meeting facilities and on-site amenities, parking, and servicing areas. I note, for completeness, that the Applicant is not currently proposing to reduce the height of the Development.
[12] In its current form, it is my recommendation that the proposal should be declined.

More about Garth Falconer, DCC’s consulting urban designer:
LinkedIn profile: https://nz.linkedin.com/in/garth-falconer-a0699bb3
Owner and Director, Reset Urban Design Ltd: http://reseturban.co.nz/

Take a glimpse of the ‘urban form’ at Takapuna, North Shore Auckland (his home turf), to know Mr Falconer is likely missing any handle on building height for a heritage city like Dunedin.

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Agenda and all documents including Submissions at:

http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/council-online/notified-resource-consents/notified-applications-pending/luc-2017-48-and-sub-2017-26

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At Facebook [see comments]:

### ODT Online Sat, 8 Jul 2017
Reject hotel bid: planner
By Chris Morris
A planner has recommended rejecting Dunedin’s latest five-star hotel bid, unless the developer agrees to a “substantial reduction” in the building’s height. The recommendation to decline consent came in a report by independent consultant Nigel Bryce, made public yesterday, ahead of the public hearing beginning on July 31. In his report to the panel of independent commissioners, Mr Bryce said the hotel development would “visually dominate” its surroundings, including the town hall, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Municipal Chambers. It would be the tallest building in the central city and would cast a shadow over the Octagon, as well as the nearby Kingsgate Hotel, during winter. Together with other impacts, the development was considered to be “non-complying” under the city’s district plan rules. It would only be acceptable if the building was reduced by four storeys, lowering its overall height from 60m to 45.6m, which was still well above the existing 11m height limit for the site, his report said.
Read more

[initial coverage]
7.7.17 ODT: Decline hotel consent: report

### ODT Online Wed, 28 Jun 2017
Two from North Island on hotel hearings panel
By Chris Morris
The panel to decide the fate of Dunedin’s latest five-star hotel bid features one familiar face and two from the North Island. Tekapo businessman Anthony Tosswill’s bid to build a 17-storey hotel and apartment tower in Dunedin would be considered over five days, beginning on July 31, it was confirmed yesterday. […] The panel of three would be headed by chairman Andrew Noone, now an Otago regional councillor, acting in his role as an independent commissioner. […] Alongside him will be fellow independent commissioners Stephen Daysh, of Napier, and Gavin Lister, of Auckland.
Read more

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Related Posts and Comments:
● 14.5.17 RNZ reports July hearings for proposed hotel apartment building [comments by Mr Tosswill]
● 4.5.17 Submissions close 10 May : Proposed 17-storey, est. 62.5 metres-high Moray Place hotel/apartment building
● 7.4.17 Proposed hotel *height and design* —the very least of it #sellingoursouls
● 5.6.17 Application lodged for FIASCO Hotel by Tosswill #DunedinWrecks
● 18.12.16 DCC set to take away CBD car parks without Economic Impact research
● 15.10.16 Battle of the hotels : DCC meat in the sandwich (unedifying)
● 5.10.16 Dunedin bauble #votecatcher
● 4.10.16 The Demon Duck freak show of partial ‘Civic’ information! Before voting closes! #Dunedin
11.1.16 Un hôtel. Dunedin.
19.8.15 Hotels ? Business ? [DCC lost +++152 fleet vehicles] —Cull in charge of building chicken coops, why ?
1.4.14 HOTEL Town Hall… Another investment group, Daaave’s pals from the communist state?
25.3.14 Hotel We LIKE: Distinction Dunedin Hotel at former CPO

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Source: Application documents

thoughts and faces #loosematerial

My father [never a follower of the FedUp Farmers, as he deemed them; always the campaigner for removal of farm subsidies, to enhance production and market competition] had ‘stock’ phrases with which to judge the faces of female adversaries, those with little brain or spine in politics, pretenders. One adept phrase that sticks in my mind is “like a horse eating thistles” —so I look on the following with my tinted lens, and laugh, rurally (ruefully). No one target.

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On 19 May @StuFleming tweeted: “Spend $200k, revenue projections of $2.4M to others, 10% margin yields say $240k net”
[minus ODT news photo of face]

As ratepayer not involved in tourism or hospo, I’m wondering what to spend my windfall from Trenz on. Travel? Balclutha or Hampden? https://t.co/kau4b3aDSB

— T. Optional (@TomBoyOptional) May 20, 2017

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Rather bleak. pic.twitter.com/dI41cnqk0u

— Chris (@opetheater) May 20, 2017

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[DUD ‘money hype’ typically depends on false multipliers, anechoic silences, and arrogant self-belief —this (yes) bleak statement applies across a broad range of proposed deals and associated marketing detritus in the city, especially to events, conferences, sport, hospitality and accommodation, and even the re-use (Not conservation) of truly rare and precious instances of historic heritage] Here’s to all the fricking horses out there, including hypocritical colleagues and friends with blinkers like demo balls prepared to squeeze the last dollar and pass us to Hell. Anyway, back to “the business”…. cargo cult tourism. The wider effects of tourism are like those of dairying. Too many eggs in one basket and everybody (I mean, everybody) ends up doing it badly —killing Our Place for generations. Greed, like endorphins, like a running addiction, binds them up. They think they’re bright, they think they’re enablers (read risk takers/investors centred on their own gains only), they think they’re entrepreneurs, better than others (but because I for one will tell you things you don’t want to hear, you’ll say “I’ll ring you tomorrow”, that silence again) but they’re just funneled, tunneled sheepybaas – doing it wrong. Like cows, deer, Chinese gooseberries (Kiwifruit!), wines, stadiums….. or ‘getting a room’ behind the poorly remembered, heavily made-up, Disney’d facade of our city and nationhood. The worst kind didn’t, or didn’t bother to, ‘grow up’ here. They get desperate, create mess, import other yes men. Ring you like nothing happened, their exploits —not to ask deeply madly who and how you really are.

### ODT Online Sat, 20 May 2017
Trenz prompts high aspirations
By David Loughrey
Next year’s Trenz conference in Dunedin is set to cost ratepayers $200,000, but the long-term pay-off should run well into the millions.
The Dunedin City Council will next week be given an idea of the costs to the city of hosting the conference from May 7 to 10, and also the estimated benefits. The city learned last week it would host the tourism industry event next year, bringing up to 1200 international travel and tourism buyers, media and New Zealand tourism operators to Dunedin. It will be the first time the event, run by Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA), has come to Dunedin and the first time it has been hosted outside Auckland, Rotorua, Christchurch or Queenstown since it began in the 1960s. Trenz is an opportunity for New Zealand tourism operators to sell their product to buyers, effectively overseas travel agents who put together itineraries for overseas tourists. Attracting more than 350 buyers to experience the tourism products on offer here is considered a huge coup. On average, each buyer sends 4000 visitors a year to New Zealand, totalling 1.5 million. It comes as figures show New Zealand’s tourism market is expected to continue to grow strongly, topping $15 billion by 2023. Tourism contributes more than $690 million to Dunedin’s economy every year.
Read more

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South Islanders woke up to a snowy start this morning with the first Antarctic blast of winter https://t.co/AJsIxO5Pwe pic.twitter.com/0jBfYGEORq

— nzherald (@nzherald) May 19, 2017

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Meanwhile, although we (‘our stock’ NZ) and the UK farm gate look pretty much the same……

‘Herdwick Shepherd’ aka James Rebanks (@herdyshepherd1) farms Herdwick sheep in the English Lake District. Author of bestselling memoir, The Shepherd’s Life:

Still cold up on the fells pic.twitter.com/VsFBL9yJnX

— Herdwick Shepherd (@herdyshepherd1) May 19, 2017

Best thing this week… pic.twitter.com/CKD0DJtAxj

— Herdwick Shepherd (@herdyshepherd1) May 19, 2017

### ODT Online Saturday, 20 May 2017
OE to Britain set to get tougher
Prime Minister Bill English says the Conservative Party’s new plans to clamp down on immigration will sting New Zealanders wanting to live in the United Kingdom, including on the traditional OE, but there is little he can do until Brexit is completed. The British party’s election manifesto includes plans to drastically cut net migration from 273,000 to less than 100,000 by targeting students and those on working visas. It proposes cutting the number of skilled migrants to get visas, higher levies on employers who take on migrant workers and tripling the National Health Service immigration health surcharge from £200 to £600 ($NZ380 to $NZ1130) a year for those in the UK on visas of more than six months and 450 for international students. That surcharge increase will also affect those on the traditional OE, although there is no mention of scrapping the two-year youth mobility visa which allows young New Zealanders to get a two-year visa to work and travel in the United Kingdom. Mr English said the changes would affect those on their OE but they would have to grin and bear it until Brexit was completed. NZME.
Read more

—

Super City mayor Phil Goff has a plan for getting money from tourists – it bears some similarity to that of the Mongrel Mob……

Amid talk of hotel taxes and tourist levies, Winston Aldworth says New Zealanders are missing a bigger opportunity https://t.co/oJNUiMesTL

— nzherald (@nzherald) May 19, 2017

### NZ Herald Thu, 18 May 2017
Winston Aldworth: Seeking the smart money
OPINION What do Phil Goff and the Mongrel Mob have in common? As hundreds of travel industry figures from all around the world gathered in Auckland for last week’s Trenz conference, one of the many topics up for discussion was the Auckland mayor’s enthusiasm for a hotel bed tax on visitors to the city. Meanwhile, up north at Ahipara on Ninety Mile Beach, three German tourists were approached by two local Mongrel Mob members who told them that they were on Maori land, and had to pay koha. They also told the tourists they’d be taking a few of their cigarettes. A tobacco tax, if you will. Perhaps their plan for putting heavy taxes on visitors was inspired by the Super City mayor. Goff’s bed tax is about as blunt an instrument as the Mob’s shakedown. “Look there’s a foreigner! Let’s get a couple of bucks off them.” The airport tax introduced by John Key a year ago is equally clumsy. It’s a travesty that these tariffs are the best we can come up with for making money out of tourism. Yes, other countries put dull levies on visitor arrivals, but that’s no reason to follow suit. We New Zealanders pride ourselves on being innovators, so let’s find innovative ways to get more money out of the tourism sector. Both Goff and Key were ministers in governments that did everything they could to remove tariffs from the dairy trade. Today, the best and brightest marketing wallahs of Goff’s inner circle are putting forward a plan no more sophisticated than one devised by two Mongrel Mob members standing on a Northland beach. I’m not against making money out of tourists — quite the opposite, in fact. I think it’s terrific that our country can be boosted by an industry that encourages us to care for our environment, celebrate the things that make our culture unique and spreads revenue quickly and efficiently to the regions. But how about instead of putting a dumb tax on the visitors, we upsell them? Take their money at the gate for sure, but give them something special in return.
Read more

Enough randomising. More rain and ice falls.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

RNZ reports July hearings for proposed hotel apartment building

Image: Paterson Pitts Group

Image: Thom Craig Architects

### rnz.co.nz Wed, 10 May 2017 at 6:13 p.m.
RNZ News: New Zealand / Business
Hotel plans prioritise visitors over residents – objectors
By Lydia Anderson – Otago/Southland reporter
Residents above the proposed site for Dunedin’s first five-star hotel say it’s not right their view of the city will be blocked so tourists can have a better one. The 17-storey ‘Electric Thistle’ Moray Place design would sit behind the city’s heritage buildings in the Octagon. More than 200 submissions on the project have been filed – three quarters of them in opposition. The hotel’s height and modern design has some residents worried – at about 64m high it would be significantly taller than the current 11m limit imposed on the chosen site, which is currently a carpark.
….The proposed hotel would feature 210 hotel rooms plus apartments, cafe, a wine club, public hot pools and conference rooms.
….The hotel’s developer [?]* Tony Tosswill, who represented Horizon Hospitality Group, said the hotel was being built high rather than wide out of consideration for the views of people living in the city rise area. To meet international five-star standards the hotel needed views and around 200 rooms, he said.
….Public hearings on the submissions will take place in July.
Read more

● Full application: 143-193 Moray Place – LUC-2017-48 and SUB-2017-26
● View all submissions

****

The applicant is NZ Horizon Hospitality Group Limited http://www.companies.govt.nz/co/5876487

The name of the building developer/financier hasn’t been announced. Asian finance is suspected as being needed but likely not obtained yet; New Zealand’s Australian-owned banks aren’t providing credit on speculative developments at this scale.

Pullman Hotels is fêted as the hotel manager.

█ Spokesman for the (unnamed) developer is Anthony Tosswill of Tekapo, NZ. Mr Tosswill is not the developer, as may have been construed from MSM news items.

****

The following comments from Mr Tosswill were received for publication by What if? Dunedin in late April. Links to the threads where they appear are provided here:

2017/04/24 at 9:37 pm
Anthony Tosswill
In reply to Elizabeth.
why do you wish to destroy employment in Dunedin, why do you want to prevent creating Jobs and more revenues for the Community and supporting Tourism and local Business?
Why do you wish to keep subsidizing Dunedin venues when they can support themselves with the Services that this Hotel can offer.
Why dont you disclose who you are so People can judge you and your motives. The Jobs that Cadburys will make redundant are you able to give them Jobs or the new Students ending there education.
When was the Last New Hotel Built in Dunedin? Dunedin None Queenstown 6, Queenstown 26,000 Dunedin 126,000.
How about supporting Development, and Jobs or are you one of those that just as you say destroy everything before its starts.
Who am I, I am a spokesman for the Developer

2017/04/24 at 9:46 pm
Anthony Tosswill
In reply to Elizabeth.
Great Video, it suggests you are supporting Terrorism. Is that amusing blowing up things. It also suggests you want to stop Jobs, supporting local Business. preventing People attending Events and Venues, dislike tourism and dont want a venue that supports Dunedin. I suggest you at least remove the Blowing up of the Developments its in very bad taste.
When reading comments on this site its easy to see why it has so little support.
I am a spokesman for the Developer, who are you?

2017/04/25 at 4:58 pm
Anthony Tosswill
In reply to Peter.
I would like to point out that Residents in Londo complained about the about the Shard in London and the London Eye yet, Yet Today we Recognize London for these 2 Buildings as they are also Top Tourists sites as is the Palace. Hindsight is marvelous
Do you recall the complaints when the stadium prior to been Built now its recognized as one of the Top 20 in the World. Dunedin be proud.
One may tell us of Identical Buildings so we can learn from your expertise.
The Design relates to minimizing views from residents behind plus maximizing views of Tourists that want to appreciate Dunedin and its Harbour we believe in our design and concept.
Retrospective opinions are great if you are trying to stop the future progress of Dunedin, if your view point is taken seriously its Dunedin’s loss.
Spokesman for the Developer.

2017/04/25 at 5:28 pm
Anthony Tosswill
In reply to Elizabeth.
Hi Elizabeth,
you made several comments. Architectural design.
a) Design and the Changes,
In Response, I respectfully point out that does not relate to commercial facts or results, hence for any 5 Star Hotel and in Particular in Dunedin our view is very different but it is for this type of Development whats been Built in All Cities around the World, we are one of the 99% (Not the 1%)
b) We have incorporated a Design that shows off Dunedin, with new Technology that is expected today by 5 Star Guests. Dunedin is the Showcase, the Development is to provide Access to the City not be the City~
You suggest and refer to your time and Resources “What are They”?
It Also appears that you think Asians are also different or at least there Money is, maybe you should complain also about the contribution made by Asians that go to Otago University is their money bad? I like Asian People, I married to one.
Love to know more about whatever Cargo Growth is? Are you a Supporter of Cadbury Factory Closure as well? Is that not a local Resource?
400 Persons Daily Spending Money in New 5 Star Hotel in Dunedin is Growth to Dunedin, please re add up the equation since you have an alleged financial background your sums should add up one cold think,
Good on you Farmer for having an independent view point congratulation is this Elizabeth’s Blog its appears to be!
Spokesman for the Developer

—

Related Posts and Comments:
● 4.5.17 Submissions close 10 May : Proposed 17-storey, est. 62.5 metres-high Moray Place hotel/apartment building
● 7.4.17 Proposed hotel *height and design* —the very least of it #sellingoursouls
● 5.6.17 Application lodged for FIASCO Hotel by Tosswill #DunedinWrecks
● 18.12.16 DCC set to take away CBD car parks without Economic Impact research
● 15.10.16 Battle of the hotels : DCC meat in the sandwich (unedifying)
● 5.10.16 Dunedin bauble #votecatcher
● 4.10.16 The Demon Duck freak show of partial ‘Civic’ information! Before voting closes! #Dunedin
11.1.16 Un hôtel. Dunedin.
19.8.15 Hotels ? Business ? [DCC lost +++152 fleet vehicles] —Cull in charge of building chicken coops, why ?
1.4.14 HOTEL Town Hall… Another investment group, Daaave’s pals from the communist state?
25.3.14 Hotel We LIKE: Distinction Dunedin Hotel at former CPO

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Submissions close 10 May : Proposed 17-storey, est. 62.5 metres-high Moray Place hotel/apartment building

Where to access more information about the application:

Dunedin City Council website:

█ Current notified resource consent applications
http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/council-online/notified-resource-consents

Applicant: NZ Horizon Hospitality Group Limited
[ http://www.companies.govt.nz/co/5876487 ]
Subject site: 143-193 Moray Place
Status: Non-complying activity
Submissions close: Wednesday, 10 May 2017 at 5:00 p.m.

█ Application information + submission information/online form at:
143-193 Moray Place – Non-complying activity – LUC-2017-48 and SUB-2017-26

A P P L I C A T I O N ● D E S C R I P T I O N

Land use consent is sought to construct and operate a commercial residential development involving 210 visitor accommodation rooms (hotel rooms), 64 self-contained apartments, four self-contained penthouse suites, together with licensed premises, retail, conference, meeting facilities and on-site amenities, parking, and servicing. The development proposes a new building with 17 storeys (including the lift core on the top of the building, and three levels of the building extending below ground). The overall height of the proposed building varies in relation to the existing ground level, but will be approximately 62.5m at the highest point above the existing ground level (including the lift core). The proposed building is assessed as a non-complying activity under the operative Dunedin City District Plan. The application includes an assessment of effects.

Land use consent is also sought for earthworks because the site development will involve an estimated 8,914m3 of earthworks and a maximum cut depth of 7.35 metres from existing ground level.

Subdivision consent is sought for a unit title subdivision in relation to the proposed building. The application includes plans of the proposed subdivision.
The subject site is located in the Central Activity Zone in the operative Dunedin City District Plan and is located within the north Princes Street/Moray Place/Exchange townscape precinct TH03.

The proposed building is a non-complying activity under the operative Dunedin City District Plan (due to non-compliance with Rule 9.5.2(i) no front or side yards, Rule 9.5.2(iii) veranda requirements along Filleul Street frontage of the site, and signage under Rule 9.5.2(vi)). The building also exceeds the maximum 11 metre height limit under Rule 9.5.2(ii) which requires consent as a restricted discretionary activity under Rule 9.5.3(i). The proposal is also a controlled activity under Townscape Rule 13.7.2(i).  

The proposed earthworks are a restricted discretionary activity under Rule 17.7.3 of the operative Dunedin City District Plan.

The unit title subdivision is a non-complying activity under Rule 18.5.2. Rule 18.5.3 requires that every allotment in a subdivision must have both legal access and vehicle access to a formed road. The rules for subdivision do not expressly provide for unit title divisions where the allotments created may comprise multiple units within a building.

The subject site is zoned Central Business District in the proposed Second Generation Plan and a secondary pedestrian frontage applies.

The proposed 2GP was notified on 26 September 2015. The relevant objectives and policies of the 2GP must be considered. Rules in the 2GP can be deemed as operative if no submissions have been made in opposition. The application says that some 2GP rules may be deemed operative. If the decision maker determines that 2GP rules are deemed operative these rules will apply instead of the corresponding Dunedin City District Plan rule. {bolding by whatifdunedin}

█ SUB-2017-26 & LUC-2017-48 – Public Notice (PDF, 31.4 KB)

Please read the accompanying documents and reports that apply to this application, as listed here.

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M A K I N G ● A ● S U B M I S S I O N

█ Online submission form

█ SUB-2016-26 & LUC-2017-48 – Submission Form (Form 13) (PDF, 38.9 KB)

IMPORTANT: If you wish to make a submission on this application you may do so by sending a written submission to the consent authority, Dunedin City Council at PO Box 5045, Moray Place, Dunedin, 9058 Attn: City Planning, no later than 5:00 pm on the closing date shown.
● Email: resconsent.submission@dcc.govt.nz

The submission must be dated, signed by you, and include the following information:

• Your name and postal address and phone number/fax number;
• Details of the application in respect of which you are making the submission including location;
• Whether you support, oppose, or are neutral towards the application;
• Your submission, with reasons;
• The decision you wish the consent authority to make;
• Whether you wish to be heard in support of your submission.

Please note: If you make your submission by electronic means, a signature is not required.

An acknowledgment of your submission will be sent by post when the submission is accepted as complete. The application may be viewed at the City Planning Enquiries Desk, Customer Service Centre on the Ground Floor, Civic Centre, 50 The Octagon.

You must serve a copy of your submission on NZ Horizon Hospitality Group Limited, the applicant, whose address for service is Anderson & Co Resource Management, PO Box 5933, Dunedin 9058, as soon as reasonably practicable after serving your submission on the Dunedin City Council.

Alternatively, you can Email copy of your submission to NZ Horizon Hospitality Group Limited via Anderson & Co Resource Management (Dunedin) –
Attention: Conrad Anderson conrad_a@xtra.co.nz

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V I E W S ● A N D ● L A N D S C A P E ● C O N T E X T

7. Architectural Drawings, including Arch Statement and earthworks (PDF)
8. Subdivision plans (PDF)
13a. Photomontage notes (PDF)
13b. Photomontage (PDF)
13c. Anticipated Views Assessment Notes – supplementary (PDF)
20. Urban Design (PDF)
21. Memo – Re: Glass (PDF)

NB. Note a number of the angled street views provided in the application are partial only – the full extent of the proposed building (in order to help assess accompanying effects) is not given except in wider landscape perspectives such as when seen from across the harbour or along street vistas. Most close-up perspective views of the proposed building, such as when seen from the Octagon, may appear to be ‘diminished’ or foreshortened in height – scale accuracy is difficult to determine in the presentation renders without technical knowledge of how the views were generated. It is somewhat likely that independent peer review(s) of the (landscape and townscape) presentation renders provided by the applicant and their consultants will be sought by submitters, if not the processing authority.

█ Spokesman for the (unnamed) developer is Anthony Tosswill of Tekapo, NZ.
Mr Tosswill has noted in comments to What if? Dunedin that he speaks for the developer. Mr Tosswill is not the developer, as may have been construed from news items published by the Otago Daily Times previously.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Selected renders from application documents : Thom Craig Architects and Paterson Pitts Group

*Poor quality of images as received via DCC webpages.

Proposed hotel *height and design* —the very least of it #sellingoursouls

At Facebook:

[screenshot]

Channel 39 via YouTube [screenshot]

—

Related Post and Comments:
5.6.17 Application lodged for FIASCO Hotel by Tosswill #DunedinWrecks

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Application lodged for FIASCO Hotel by Tosswill #DunedinWrecks

At Facebook:

****

Tekapo-based businessman Anthony Tosswill is hoping to send the signal “the city is open” with this master-disaster, or something closely akin.
JFC i

An application for resource consent was lodged with DCC today for this unlanced boil on the elegant hind quarter of our heritage city.

Details in brief according to ODT deputy editor Craig Page at Channel 39 News tonight:

● 17 storey ‘glass hotel in central city’
● 60 [read 64] metres at highest point
● 210 rooms
● 64 apartments
● 4 penthourse suites
as well as retail opportunities.

The proposal exceeds the district plan height limit (11 metres) – meaning the application is to be publicly notified.

ODT will publish concept renders and contextuals tomorrow.

Get your Smart Hats on Dunedinites, give him a fricking run for his (or other people’s) money. Beyond the Mass Unsightliness, you will lose your convenient central city parking area – be prepared to walk for blocks next time you want to attend events at the Council, Town Hall, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Central Library or Regent Theatre.

Has the Dunedin City Council SOLD YOU OUT ???
Ratepayers own/owned the site. What DEAL has been done by council politicians and staff to prosper an OUT OF TOWN private individual above and beyond your immediate and long term LOCAL requirements in the central city.
JFC ii

DCC Webmap – Filleul St council-owned parking area (shaded)

█ Market Gap Report Hotels – Evidence Stephen Hamilton, Horwath HTL
December 2012 (PDF, 482 KB)

—

Related Posts and Comments:
● 18.12.16 DCC set to take away CBD car parks without Economic Impact research
● 15.10.16 Battle of the hotels : DCC meat in the sandwich (unedifying)
● 5.10.16 Dunedin bauble #votecatcher
● 4.10.16 The Demon Duck freak show of partial ‘Civic’ information! Before voting closes! #Dunedin
11.1.16 Un hôtel. Dunedin.
19.8.15 Hotels ? Business ? [DCC lost +++152 fleet vehicles] —Cull in charge of building chicken coops, why ?
1.4.14 HOTEL Town Hall… Another investment group, Daaave’s pals from the communist state?
25.3.14 Hotel We LIKE: Distinction Dunedin Hotel at former CPO

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Battle of the hotels : DCC meat in the sandwich (unedifying)

Cr Hilary Calvert emailed the following questions to senior council officers on Sunday, 16 September 2016 at 1:20 p.m., with regards to the DCC-owned parking area in Filleul St, proposed as the site for a new privately developed hotel.

[Staff names have been removed. -Eds]

Enterprise Dunedin provides part reply on Friday, 7 October 2016, at 5:03 p.m.

Q: How many car parks will be lost if this project goes ahead, and what would be the loss of revenue to the DCC?

A: The number of car parks that may be lost cannot be accurately determined at this point in time. The next stage in the project following the due diligence period will provide that level of detailed information.

Q: What development contribution and/or rates relief was provided on the Chief Post Office site, in total, for that site?

A: Enterprise Dunedin does not have this information. I will forward the request to Finance for them to respond.

Q: How many first class beds are we short of in Dunedin according to your information? Does the industry agree with your assessment of what we are short of?

A: In the 2012 evidence for the Resource Consent Application for Betterways Ltd, Stephen Hamilton’s (Horwath Asia Pacific Ltd) ‘Market Gap Report’ indicated “the need for an internationally branded 5 star hotel and another 4 star plus hotel for Dunedin to remain competitive with Tier 1 and Top Tier 2 destinations is 150-250 rooms”.

No reply has been received, we understand, for this fourth question which was directed to another senior council officer:

Q: What is the number of parks we will be losing as a result of … likely central city changes such as bus hub and cycleways, in the vicinity of the central city within the range of those who would park and walk to their work close to the Filleul St site (maybe Moray Place south, Princes St and George St to the outer end of the Golden Block, seaward to the far side of Cumberland)?

DCC Webmap – Filleul St council-owned parking area (shaded)

Furthermore, after noting public concerns about the loss of car parks, an OIA request by Hilary Calvert was submitted to Sandy Graham, Group Manager Corporate Services, on Friday, 14 October 2016 at 10:28 a.m.

Re: OIA Parks new hotel [Filleul Street]
Q: Would it be possible to get information from [City Property] about how many parks there are on this property and any affected by the sale i.e. any contiguous property on which DCC has parks.

Reply is pending.

****

BELATED NEWS—
Mr Tosswill (NZ Horizon Hospitality Group Ltd – incorporated 20 Jan 2016) has some competition, as does DCC on what it knows or chooses not to reveal……

There’s only ONE WINNER, it’s not likely to be DCC.
Market research shows Mrs Hagaman is quite correct.

“Ratepayers need to know the region’s five-star market is very small.”
–Lani Hagaman, Scenic Circle

### ODT Online Sat, 15 Oct 2016
Five-star hotel planned; site, height unclear
By Dene Mackenzie
The Scenic Circle Group is planning a five-star hotel in Dunedin but the company will not reveal where it will build the $34 million 120-room hotel, or its height. The hotel would have restaurants, bars, conference rooms and a luxury day spa. The hotel group, owned by Earl and Lani Hagaman, has owned and operated the 178-room, 4.5-star Dunedin Scenic Hotel Southern Cross since 1984 and, in 2003, built the 121-room four-star Scenic Hotel Dunedin City. […] Mrs Hagaman yesterday  launched stinging criticism of the council and its involvement with Mr Tosswill. She said she advised the council about Scenic’s plans for a five-star property more than three months ago and was surprised the council entered into an exclusive deal with another developer.
Read more

DCC Webmap – Scenic Circle / Hagaman properties (shaded), The Exchange

—

Related Posts and Comments:
● 5.10.16 Dunedin bauble #votecatcher
● 4.10.16 The Demon Duck freak show of partial ‘Civic’ information! Before voting closes! #Dunedin
11.1.16 Un hôtel. Dunedin.
19.8.15 Hotels ? Business ? [DCC lost +++152 fleet vehicles] —Cull in charge of building chicken coops, why ?
1.4.14 HOTEL Town Hall… Another investment group, Daaave’s pals from the communist state?

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Curtains for Dunedin City Council ? *gulp —October elections [grey area]

Received. [spoof or sting] . . . . . w o r r i e d
Thu, 2 Jun 2016 at 8:20 a.m.

[all-comic.com]

Urgente: Annoucemente’

The first June meeting will be held on the first of June, the first.

Minutes: Of the last meeting.

“Cull de Mare”

OK Good Idea!

Agenda: Item 22, Delete Item 21- Agreed unanimously or unani(kleinefieldmausly) as you would.

The Question:

Is there a wait for Meals on Wheels?

No not only is there no weight, but also no taste, no colour, no nutrition and no hope of any for 15 years and lets hope no right of renewal!

Question Der:

Postulate: In a letter received Tuesday last, a Miz Dr, Prof. Mc El Hone suggested that the main reason for de sea level rise is now steam.

Steam is gumming up the atmosphere and so the cold weather we have been receiving lately is now unable to get away causing bloody cold weather now described as “Global Cooling”.

Dr Professor Earl, Count and Pons Hagfish, the owner of a large number of scenic hotels in de districk and manager of a number in serious question in de Pacific has written and questions the Comite’ thus: My business is suffering, all of my marketing and advertising has been geared towards the concept of Dunedin and the Peninsula as the new Sunny Gold Coast. Sunny because of the “Global Warming” mantra and Gold coast because the expected sea level rise would take the shoreline to Clyde, the Shotover river and Bendigo abandoned goldfields!

Now your Comite’ is debunking the sea level rise as a giant furphy and that the climate is actually so cold as to suggest “Global Cooling” I am now forced to market Dunedin, as in the past, a place where refrigerators are not required, a meat safe will do!

This is a huge capital saving for Scenery hotels, as we do not have to place a minibar in each room and if we leave out the window glass the meat never defrosts! Wines are cold and at room temperature of -20 degrees, no ice machine is necessary.

There are some problems however.

Patrons are found frozen stiff in the hallway and in the foyer. Ice skates are necessary for trips to the car park. Chains are necessary on delivery trucks and cabs to and from the airport. The planes have skis and the pilots wear balaclavas.

In order to improve this I have a very important and well considered plan to eliminate “global cooling”.

M’sieur Rollande de Gurgelars, VC and Public bar, International medaille D’ore, Croix de G.U.R and house bar stands with open hands and speaks.

M’sieur de Hag-fish, your commente’ is much desired, your wisdom and more importantly your desire for a quid are legionarre’s disease throughout Aotearoa.

Please sally forth and unburden yourself.

Hag-Fish replies, Le Comte, Sally was the fifth, not the fourth, but not to worry, I will commence from the finish.

We the Secenery Circle propose that a law be imposed, firstly on all households in the greater Dunedin area including Kate Wilson’s fiefdom and Cr Noone’s rurality, Cr. Hall’s trucks and Mayor Cull’s uncleaned mudtanks, to ban, eradicate, censure, drop off the perch and if necessary obliterate and immolate all items which could be roughly described as Kettles.

Kettles will include any item capable of boiling water to steam, whether working operational or not! This includes but is not limited to Railway Steam Engines, Pots, Pans, Kettles, Hot Water cylinders, Zips, Teesmade, Coffee machines, Lawrence Yule and headmasters.

Headmasters?

Oui, they are always letting off steam, particularly the dean of Kings High.

In this way, we believe that the absence of steam will enable the cold air around Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland to escape and we can get back to comfortable “Global Warming” and Dunedin can be the Riviera of the southern hemisphere again, just like it was in February. Our marketing campaign featuring bikini clad sealions, brown skinned natives, (cabbage) Palm trees, Coconuts etc. will again be relevant and we can turn on the air conditioning at Forsyth Banned to ensure noone dies of heatstroke!

Is Cr. Noone dying of heatstroke?

No not now, that is the problem we are trying to rectify!

Le Comte, rises, thanks Earl Hag-Fish and whispers into his Iphone to Craig’s Investment partners ….

Sell Briscoes! Sell Coffee Club, Sell Starbucks.

Pam Demonia reigns.

The Curtain comes down.

[ends]

—

Related Posts and Comments:
18.5.16 Measuring sea level at Dunedin #DUD
1.5.16 Hospital food according to Gurglars
25.2.16 CELEBRATE !!! Greater Dunedin has DIED #boombustcycle
11.1.16 Un hôtel. Dunedin.
5.6.15 WEATHER is not climate change; this is not the 100-year flood

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Election Year —this post is offered in the public interest.

[clockhousetheatre.com]

█ In a spot . . . . .

Un hôtel. Dunedin.

Douglas Field Published Jan 11, 2016 | Republished Aug 17, 2016 | Updated

Dunedin looks – yet again at another new hotel. Trouble is they always get it wrong – last one was a doozy – this one ain’t shaping up too well either.
All very cloak and dagger.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Harbourside: Official information request to Dunedin City Council

Note: LGOIMA official information requests can be emailed direct to officialinformation @dcc.govt.nz

DCC Webmap – Upper Harbour Central Dunedin JanFeb 2013

—

From: Elizabeth Kerr
Sent: Monday, 7 September 2015 2:30 p.m.
To: Sandy Graham [DCC]
Cc: Elizabeth Kerr; Grace Ockwell [DCC]; Sue Bidrose [DCC]
Subject: LGOIMA Information Request

Dear Sandy

Re: Urban Design and Envisioning for Dunedin Harbourside

I note the following media items:

● ODT (19.8.15) Cull to push for more city hotels [hotel accommodation]
● ODT (20.8.15) Under-fire Cull stands by comments [hotel accommodation]
● ODT (26.8.15) – A Mackay, Opinion Harbourside development adds vibrancy
● ODT (31.8.15) – P Entwisle, Opinion Extraordinary works inspired by nature [Van Brandenburg]
● ODT (5.9.15) Waterfront the next big thing? [bridge, aquarium, ORC headquarters, hotels etc]
● ODT (5.9.15) Harbourside views in conflict
● ODT (5.9.15) ORC denies hindering development
● ODT (7.9.15) Vogel Street Party spreads its wings [Van Brandenburg ‘hotel’ model]
● ODT (7.9.15) Conferences ‘great’ boost for city

●● DCC media release (27.8.15) Building stronger local government connections with China

●● Indications are that DCC wants Otago Rowing Club to relocate from their premises to a site of the DCC’s choosing.

I wish to formally request ALL reports and visionary/guiding documents and or statements/statements of proposal or intent that are currently being used by Dunedin City Council in consultation with other parties (real and potential – local, national and international) be they:

focus groups, steering groups, working parties, development partners, surveyors, designers/architects, resource management specialists, investors, project facilitators, project managers, University of Otago, Otago Polytechnic, Otago Chamber of Commerce and or other – to ‘shape and envision’ the future development of Dunedin Harbourside in the urban area that extends from:

Otago Boat Harbour and its vicinity (includes Industrial 1 zone, Stadium zone, Port 2 zone) to the area zoned for mixed use south of Dunedin’s Steamer Basin (Harbourside zone) and further south to Portsmouth Drive (Industrial 1 zone); including connections to existing precincts TH12, TH13, TH05, TH04, TH03 and TH02.

Any corresponding information and explanation that derives from the, to be publicly notified (this month?), second generation plan (2GP) for these city blocks and foreshore area is also requested.

I look forward to prompt receipt of all available information in electronic format.

Regards

Elizabeth Kerr
[Dunedin North]

——————

From: Sandy Graham [DCC]
Sent: Monday, 7 September 2015 2:42 p.m.
To: Elizabeth Kerr
Cc: Grace Ockwell [DCC]; Sue Bidrose [DCC]
Subject: RE: LGOIMA Information Request

Dear Elizabeth

Thanks for your very detailed LGOIMA request which I have forwarded to the officialinformation @dcc.govt.nz. Your request will be processed under the terms of LGOIMA and a response will be provided as soon as practicable but in any event within 20 working days.

Regards
Sandy

[DCC Group Manager Corporate Services]

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
[it’s OK, not holding my breath for too much public disclosure]

Hotels ? Business ? [DCC lost +++152 fleet vehicles] —Cull in charge of building chicken coops, why ?

Updated post
Thu, 20 Aug 2015 at 8:20 p.m.

ODT: Under-fire Cull stands by comments
ODT: Advising against Dunedin ventures

[Perhaps all that untenanted/empty space in the ‘strengthened’ warehouse precinct needs (another) major refit for guest stays….]

—

### ODT Online Wed, 19 Aug 2015
Cull to push for more city hotels
By David Loughrey
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull says the Dunedin City Council will soon begin a major push to attract hotel development to the city. Reports from staff were expected on the issue, and he planned to attempt to attract investment or promote interest in developing hotels.
Read more

****

### ODT Online Wed, 19 Aug 2015
Tourism the new star
By David Loughrey
The booming tourism industry, expected to overtake dairy as New Zealand’s biggest export earner this year, means not all is “doom and gloom” in the New Zealand economy. However, there was room for local tourism organisations to work together and collaborate better, Associate Tourism Minister Paula Bennett said yesterday at the Tourism Export Council conference in Dunedin.
Read more

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Law Courts Hotel #sad

An institution. Great precinct and location for accommodation, what happened.
Enhance building performance, perfect for retrofitting and adaptive reuse.

### dunedintv.co.nz February 19, 2015 – 5:42pm
Law Courts Hotel in liquidation
The Law Courts Hotel in central Dunedin has been placed in liquidation. The hotel’s situated in lower Stuart Street, beside the Dunedin Courthouse. It’s been placed in the hands of liquidators by the High Court. Creditors owed money by the company have until the end of March to file claims. The sole director of the Law Courts Hotel is Mornington resident Leslie Scott. A financial report on the state of the business has yet to be made public. It was formally placed in liquidation last week.
Ch39 Link [no video available]

█ Wikipedia: Law Courts Hotel [edited]
‘One of the city’s most historic public houses and hostelries, the Law Courts Hotel, is located close to the Dunedin Law Courts (the courthouse) in Lower Stuart Street, in a large corner building with an Art Deco style facade (not the original frontage), directly opposite the Allied Press Building (the offices of the city’s main newspaper, the Otago Daily Times). Listed by Heritage New Zealand as a Category II historic place (List No: 2189). The prime location of this hotel near these two premises has greatly contributed to its history, as has its longevity (having originally been founded as the Auld Scotland Hotel in 1863).’ Link

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: wikimedia.org – ‘deco-tweaked’ by whatifdunedin

Dezeen: 3 projects #materials

17 March 2014
Wooden strips coil around staircase at Strasbourg hotel by Jouin Manku
Les Haras de Strasbourg (France) is a hotel and restaurant project unlike any other. Composed of a four-star hotel and Michelin 3-starred chef Marc Haeberlin’s first brasserie, Les Haras presents an original solution to the question many provincial cities are facing: how to redevelop and harness the potential of their architectural heritage. Managed by the Institute for Research into Cancer of the Digestive System (IRCAD), presided over by Professor Jacques Marescaux, the project allies architectural creativity and technological innovation, two particular areas of French expertise, with philanthropy, an unprecedented mix for a historic redevelopment project in France.

Parisian studio Jouin Manku created this 55-room hotel inside an 18th century building previously used as an equestrian academy, with a restaurant that features a staircase wrapped in a spiral of wooden strips. The pieces of oak around the stairs, which link two floors of the hotel’s brasserie, create handrails on one side and a balustrade around the top.

“The interior design for the hotel and brasserie is characterised by its authenticity and modernity,” said the designers. “A particular idea of luxury and comfort inspired by the equestrian world, restrained and subtle.”

The staircase sits between a circular bar and open kitchen at the entrance level, where informal seating and a few dining table are located. Upstairs, guests dine beneath the original wooden roof supported by chunky beams and columns. Private booths are created within pods and large curved seats covered in saddle leather, while long tables extend down the length of the space to accommodate larger parties. Stonework around the windows has been left exposed and the walls are finished with rough plaster.

The wood structure is also highlighted in the simple bedrooms, which are painted white and decorated with leather details on the headboards and furniture.

Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku have expressed their vision of this former stud farm and historic site, in a design that is both elegant and simple. They have deliberately chosen to limit the range of materials used; solid wood, natural full hide leather and blackened or brushed metal to transpose the original life of this emblematic Strasbourg building into something resolutely contemporary and simple, whose architectural details attest to the studio’s creativity.
Read more + images

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14 May 2014
Hotel Hotel Canberra lobby, Australia, by March Studio
March Studio was commissioned to design the lobby for the Nishi building, a multi-storey apartment building located in Canberra’s arts and culture precinct New Acton. The building houses two floors of hotel rooms, wrapped around a central courtyard and light well. The ground floor contains Hotel Hotel’s lobby, reception, concierge and bar, as well as retail and hospitality tenancies. The grand staircase links the apartment block with the hotel, whose design was developed by 50 artists, designers and makers including Japanese studio Suppose Design Office.

The space features thousands of pieces of recycled wood, which are fixed around the walls and ceiling to create irregular patterns around the building’s precast concrete pillars. “Freed to scatter up the walls and across the ceiling, the suspended timber filters exterior light and views into and from internal spaces,” said March Studio in a statement. “Spidery, pixelated shadows are cast on the floor and bare walls.” The lengths are supported by steel rods that run from the ceiling to the ground floor, while sparser clusters of timber-covered steel rods line the front of the entrance.

Each tread of the staircase is made up of three different types of glue-laminated timber profiles. Longer lengths of timber profiles protrude from the middle of the staircase to create an illuminated central balustrade. The staircase leads up to the hotel lobby and bar, which occupies two floors of the building. Here, chunky lengths of concrete and timber create bulky pieces of furniture, while decorative lighting fixtures hang from the ceiling and circular skylights bring in daylight from overhead.
Read more + images

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29 December 2014
David Ben-Gurion’s former home renovated by Pitsou Kedem Architects
A Tel Aviv flat that was once the home of Israel’s first prime minster has been renovated and extended by local firm Pitsou Kedem Architects to create a new basement level with industrial-style fittings. A framework of chunky black I-beams supports the ceiling of a new basement floor, added to the flat formerly owned by the late David Ben-Gurion, who was instrumental in the founding of the Israeli state and was prime minister between 1955 and 1963. The project, called Past Turned Into Space, involved reorganising the interior of the ground floor apartment, which is located within a two-storey block designed by Ukrainian architect Yosef Berlin in 1925.

“Since the construction elements we created were totally new, we took care not to hide them but left them exposed in order to tell the story of the renovation.”

The protected building features renaissance-style arches with segmental keystones, balconies and pale pink plasterwork, and is located within a UNESCO heritage site in Tel Aviv. This meant the architects had to contend with severe building restrictions to add the subterranean level that would enable them to expand the residence into a 220-square-metre duplex apartment. A palette of exposed concrete, glass and steel were continued throughout the interior, lending an industrial appearance to the interior spaces that contrasts with the building’s ornamental facade. “We chose to use concrete and steel because we treat them as timeless materials,” said the architects. “This combination with a preservation building felt right.”
Read more + images

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images:
Les Haras de Strasbourg – via Jouin Manku
Hotel Hotel, Canberra – Peter Bennetts unless otherwise stated by Dezeen
Tel Aviv apartment – Amit Goren, with styling by Eti Buskila

Dunedin’s draft local alcohol policy (Lap) —submissions, real story outs

District licensing commissioner received direct reports of enticements to survey submitters.

### ODT Online Tue, 11 Nov 2014
Dunedin bars ‘offered punters cheap drinks to fill in surveys’
By Debbie Porteous
Dunedin bars offered punters cheap drinks to fill in surveys in support of licensees position against a draft liquor licensing policy for the city, Dunedin district licensing commissioner Colin Weatherall says. Mr Weatherall kicked off the first day of Lap hearings in Dunedin with the bombshell accusation.
Read more

Other ODT articles:
10.11.14 Fallout over liquor plan
8.11.14 Alcohol policy: Plenty to pore over
8.11.14 Portal use saves $10,000
6.11.14 Alcohol policy piques

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Dunedin City council – Media Release
Draft Local Alcohol Policy Hearings Underway

This item was published on 11 Nov 2014

Residents’ views on the sale, supply and consumption of alcohol in the community will be aired at hearings underway in Dunedin. Today is the first of seven days of public hearings on the Dunedin City Council’s draft Local Alcohol Policy, with the last day being Thursday, 4 December. About 280 people are scheduled to speak at the hearings. Two days have been set aside later in December for the Hearings Committee’s deliberations.

The Dunedin City Council’s draft Local Alcohol Policy (LAP) attracted 4262 submissions. Of these, 79% (3,382 submissions) were submitted on forms developed by Hospitality NZ and the Dunedin Inner City Licensing Forum, a group of inner city licensed premises. Of the remainder, 19% (789) were made by individuals and 2% (91) of submissions came from organisations and businesses representing the hospitality, retail, health, tertiary and social sectors, as well as the Police.

The draft LAP suggests a range of changes to current practices, including rules about how close new premises may be to places such as schools and early childhood centres, a one-way door policy from 1am, licensing footpath space outside licensed premises until 11pm and banning the serving of shots from midnight. Some of these proposed changes have been opposed by a range of submitters.

DCC General Manager Services and Development Simon Pickford says, “The purpose of the draft was to get a conversation going with the community and we’re really pleased that has happened. It’s important that all sectors of our community, from businesses to individuals, tell us their views as we work to establish what is acceptable to Dunedin residents in terms of the sale, supply and consumption of alcohol.”

Under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012, the draft LAP must take into account issues such as the number of licences of each kind held for premises in its district, and the location and opening hours of each of the premises, the demography of residents and of tourists or holidaymakers who visit the district, the overall health indicators of the district’s residents and the nature and severity of the alcohol-related problems arising in the district.

Mr Pickford says, under the Act, the Hearings Committee is not able to take into account matters such as the economic impact of the suggested changes on businesses.

The membership of the Draft Local Alcohol Policy Hearings Committee is Mayor of Dunedin Dave Cull (Chairperson) and Councillors Aaron Hawkins, Mike Lord, Jinty MacTavish, Neville Peat, Andrew Whiley and Lee Vandervis.

Mr Pickford says the Committee will make recommendations to the full Council which will make the final decision on the LAP.
For more details or to view the draft LAP submissions, visit http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/lapsubs.

Contact General Manager Services and Development on 03 477 4000.
DCC Link

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Dunedin City Council
Draft Local Alcohol Policy —Consultation Hearing details

Submissions closed: 10/10/2014
Hearing: 11, 12, 13, 19 Nov and 2, 3, 4 Dec 2014
Contact person: Kevin Mechen

The purpose of a Local Alcohol Policy (LAP) is to ensure that the sale, supply and consumption of alcohol occurs in a safe and responsible way and that any adverse effects are minimised. The intention is to create an enabling policy that reflects all community aspirations, but finding the balance between various interests is a challenge.

To view the submissions received go to the Draft Local Alcohol Policy submissions information page

● Draft Local Alcohol Policy Hearings Agenda
● Draft Local Alcohol Policy Hearings Speaking Times Listing
● Draft Local Alcohol Policy Report to Hearings Committee
● Schedule of breaks during Hearings Committee

Related documents:
Draft Local Alcohol Policy (PDF, 231.4 KB)
The purpose of a Local Alcohol Policy (LAP) is to ensure that the sale, supply and consumption of alcohol occurs in a safe and responsible way and that any adverse effects are minimised.

Summary of Background Information (PDF, 269.8 KB)
This policy is to be read in conjunction with the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 and the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Regulations 2013.

Local Alcohol Policy – Statement of Proposal (PDF, 187.3 KB)
This Statement of Proposal has been prepared to fulfil the requirements of sections 83 and 87 of the Local Government Act 2002 (LGA) and section 79 of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 (the Act).

DCC Link

█ Ministry of Health | http://www.health.govt.nz/your-health/healthy-living/addictions/alcohol-and-drugs

█ NZ Drug Foundation | https://www.drugfoundation.org.nz/alcohol

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC Draft Annual Plan 2014/15 Submissions due by 15 April

### ODT Online Fri, 11 Apr 2014
Draft budget feedback pretty good: council
By Chris Morris
The Dunedin City Council says feedback on its draft budget has been “pretty good” despite some disappointing turnouts at public meetings in recent weeks. The council concluded a series of eight public meetings and drop-in sessions with a discussion of cycleway and road-widening work on Otago Peninsula at the Edgar Centre on Tuesday night.
Public submissions on the council’s 2014-15 draft annual plan were “flooding in now” and had reached 427 by late yesterday, council corporate planner Jane Nevill said. That was well above the 262 submissions received by the council on its 2013-14 draft budget.
Read more

****

DRAFT DCC ANNUAL PLAN 2014/2015
The draft annual plan sets out the Council’s proposed annual budgets and performance measures for 2014/15 and updates the information for the 2014/15 year that in contained in the Council’s ten year plan or Long Term Plan (LTP) which was put in place last year.
Please tell DCC whether you agree or disagree with spending priorities for 2014/15 outlined in the draft plan by making a submission.
The consultation period is your opportunity to “Have Your Say” about what you want to see included in the Council’s plans.

█ Submissions close at 5pm, Tuesday 15 April 2014.
Timeframes and Meeting times

█ Read more (with downloads):
http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/your-council/draft-annual-plan-2014-2015

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Related Posts and Comments:
30.3.14 Paul Pope on local body annual plans
20.1.14 DCC Draft Annual Plan 2014/15

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

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.

****

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

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Hotel: The height of arrogance

Don’t care how much you’ve spent on slapping Dunedin’s face, chook.
GO AWAY —give your ‘Swarovski crystal’ to some other place.

Bored housewife syndrome:
If you’ve spent a million already your consultants are out of control.

—

### ODT Online Fri, 14 Feb 2014
Harbour hotel now ‘a long shot’
By Chris Morris
The woman behind the plan to build a $100 million waterfront hotel in Dunedin says the proposal is now “a long shot”. Betterways Advisory Ltd director Jing Song, of Queenstown, told the Otago Daily Times she was frustrated by the delays and cost involved, after spending more than $1 million so far on pursuing the project at 41 Wharf St.
Read more

DEPLORABLY, Mayor Cull has held several meetings with the developers in Auckland “to try to advance the project”. The Mayor deliberately mixes HIS politics with a resource management matter, SHAME.

*Mr Rodgers is Mr Cull’s personal solicitor.

—

Related Post and Comments:
25.6.13 Hotel/Apartment Tower decision to be appealed

For more, enter *hotel* in the search box at right.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Tauranga: Office leases to cover potential losses from hotel

OH WOW, another $100M baby!!!!!!

This council carpark on Durham St could be home to a long-awaited $100 million hotel and commercial building development.

—

### ODT Online Wed, 24 Jul 2013
$100m hotel plan for city
By John Cousins – Bay of Plenty Times
A massive $100 million building is proposed for council-owned land in Tauranga’s downtown after plans for an international hotel escalated into a combined hotel and commercial office development.
Mayor Stuart Crosby announced that negotiations between the council and Tainui Holdings, the Waikato iwi’s investment arm, had seen a substantial high-end office development added to the original plans for a $40 million hotel. The council’s ambitions for the block of land on Durham St are now only a week away from a firm direction being given on whether the project went ahead.
Tainui Holdings and its hotel operator partner, Accor group, had until July 17 to carry out due diligence and had kept the council abreast of progress.
Mr Crosby said the much larger project had been driven by the opportunity that the income from office leases would cover potential losses from the hotel: “Hotels are notorious for not making profits in their early years.” APNZ
Read more

Tauranga downtown’s emerging skyline

Recent Additions
$30m ANZ Building on the corner of Cameron Rd & Elizabeth St
$14m Sharpe Tudhope Building on the corner of Devonport Rd & 1st Ave
$21m police station, Monmouth St

Planned Additions
$1m-plus 3-storey retail & office building on The Strand’s Grumpy Mole site
$10m office building on the corner of Willow St & Harington St
$30m TrustPower head office
$67m tertiary and research campus
$100m international hotel and office development

PS. Dunedin is SO not Tauranga. The Bay is poised to boom as the fruit bowl of Asia. Meanwhile on the Taieri, Dunedin City Council lets a councillor and friends build speculative housing and a plant nursery turn into a gravelled ‘destination hub’ (without a legal water connection?) on high class soils, with impunity.

—

Recent Post and Comments:
25.6.13 Hotel/Apartment Tower decision to be appealed

For information on the proposed $100M ‘Dunedin Hotel’, enter *hotel* in the search box at right.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin’s former Chief Post Office

—

### 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)

—

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)

—

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

University buys LivingSpace Dunedin

Received by email.

Monday, 15 April 2013 4:09 p.m.
The workers were told at a meeting today, LivingSpace (the accommodation block in Castle Street, used to be Glendermids) has been sold to the university.

It was the only profitable one of the chain, propping up the lousy Invercargill/Christchurch ones.

The company has been in receivership for quite a while, during which the Dunedin business was steadily busy and AFAIK profitable.

Wtf is the university doing with yet another (no rates I suppose) building? More student accommodation? Landlords will be thrilled.

Could be a challenge to the harbourside accommodation block too.

Cleaning staff have been given the heave-ho.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Christchurch: HOTELS with Chinese investment pending

A major Chinese construction company is eyeing joint-venture prospects in Christchurch.

### stuff.co.nz Last updated 11:33 12/04/2013
Chinese ‘very interested’ in key Christchurch project
By Lois Cairns – The Press
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker, who is in China visiting Christchurch’s sister cities, met representatives from Beijing-based company Huadu Construction this week and says they are interested in being part of a major development planned for Christchurch.

Parker said he could not reveal details of the development at this stage as negotiations were still under way, but it would be a significant project for the city.

Earthquake-recovery officials have been overseas previously seeking expressions of interest in key projects for Christchurch’s rebuild, including the new convention centre.

Asked about the possible scale of investment, Key said “the sky’s the limit” for some of the groups they were in talks with, some of which were experienced in PPP investment.

Prime Minister John Key said the business delegation he was leading in China this week had met groups interested in investing in construction, such as building hotels, where New Zealand had long accepted foreign investment. Christchurch could form part of these discussions.
Read more

****

Anonymous provided this link…

Starplus Homes staff ‘in the dark’
Some Hamilton tradespeople and contractors are understood to be owed hundreds of thousands of dollars by Chinese building company Starplus Homes. Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Images: PrimeTV News 12.4.13 [screenshots]

Towering inferno: Fire engulfs luxury apartments and 5-star hotel

Thanks to Source. Oh dear.

Flames have engulfed a 40-storey luxury skyscraper in the Chechnya capital of Grozny.

### msn.co.nz 05:30 Thu Apr 4 2013
Fire engulfs luxury skyscraper hotel
By MSN NZ staff
The building, a local centrepiece named the Olympus tower which is used to promote the city [Grozny] as a glitzy and modern hub, has been evacuated as the fire raged from the top to bottom floors.
It is understood the flames spread rapidly due to the plastic trimming on the building, which includes luxury apartments and a 5-star hotel.
Local police confirmed no one was injured.
State television pictures showed a huge plume of smoke rising into the sky and clinging to the sides of the building with bursts of yellow flames snaking down the facade.
“We have no reports of casualties … The fire is currently spreading across the building’s facade via the plastic outer panels,” the spokesman for the North Caucasus regional branch of the Emergency Situations ministry, Kantemir Davydov, told the Interfax news agency.
Eighty firemen were at the scene, the emergency situations ministry said.
A witness photograph posted on Twitter showed flames and smoke pouring from the building, which is topped by a giant clock face and stands 145m tall.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
Hope springs eternal

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.
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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

DScene – Public libraries, Hillside Workshops, stadium, pools

### DScene 19-5-10
Book it in (page 1)
The long-awaited South Dunedin Library looks to be on the horizon, with Dunedin City Council coming closer to a final deal on a site. See page 3. #bookmark

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Harsh economic lesson taught at Hillside (page 2)
Dunedin was taught a brutal economic lesson last week, when KiwiRail confirmed its preliminary view that it would not tender for its own contract to build railcarriages and engines for Auckland.
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Council set to finalise deal (page 3)
By Wilma McCorkindale
Dunedin City Council is about to finalise a deal on a potential location for the South Dunedin library. City property manager Robert Clark, who has been negotiating with an undisclosed vendor, said he expected to secure a site for the proposed library in the next three weeks to a month.
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Factory staff uncertain of future (page 3)
By Mike Houlahan
Work programmes at KiwiRail’s Hillside workshops are decided for the next two years, but the 185 staff employed there remain unsure what will happen after the factory’s current contracts end.
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Snedden checks stadium progress (page 5)
By Mike Houlahan
Rugby World Cup chief executive Martin Snedden has been checking progress on the construction of the Forsyth Barr at University Plaza stadium as his top priority for his visit to Dunedin this Friday. Snedden’s Dunedin visit is the latest in a series of excursions around the country, to the various towns and cities hosting Rugby World Cup matches.
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Raising the roof (page 5)
The 398 tonne, 130m long roof truss for the Forsyth Barr multi-purpose roofed stadium in Dunedin, was lifted 35m into the sky at the weekend. The challenging five-hour operation could only be achieved in spcific weather conditions.
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The Rugby World Cup itself, the Webb Ellis Cup, will be on show in Dunedin on Friday. TVNZ’s Breakfast weather presenter Tamati Coffey is touring the country, and will be broadcast live from the Art Gallery in the Octagon, from 6.30-8.30am. Two pool game ticket packs will be given away to the best dressed rugby fan.

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Talk: Dunedin on Dunedin (page 8)
Your say: Letters to the editor
Landmark to the rich by Harvey Kong Tin, South Dunedin
Stadium issues by Lee Vandervis, Roslyn
#bookmark

Details: The finer points (page 10)
Library plot twist
By Wilma McCorkindale
A sudden plot twist last week has mystified readers of the continuing mystery entitled “Where will Dunedin’s new public library be built?” The main character in the story, the former Dunedin Chief Post Office building in the Exchange, had loomed as the most likely suspect in this “where-will-we-do-it” saga. But the plot thickened last week after the building was sold to another buyer whose four-star hotel plans mean the city’s books must find accommodation somewhere else.
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Library needs overhaul according to report (page 11)
In its report to the council in December 2005, Octa backed [Dunedin Public Libraries chief librarian] Bernie Hawke on the need for a South Dunedin library but also said that the Dunedin Public Library needed to be redeveloped. The library building, tucked in behind the staircased Dunedin Civic Centre, was designed in the 1970s and built in 1981.
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Little library needs a helping hand (page 11)
After almost a century of people borrowing from its shelves, St Kilda Community Library is asking folk to lend it a hand. It is looking to boost a small six-strong team of volunteer librarians, its dwindling membership, and its stack of titles, library committee president Gillian Lemon said.
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Taking shape (page 12)
By Mike Houlahan
A year into Hillside Engineering’s newest contract, workers can begin to see the finished product take shape. Well, one-third of it anyway. This week the KiwiRail-operated workshop unveiled its latest work in progress, carriages for the sightseeing trains the TranzCoastal and the TranzAlpine.
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Game: Beyond the scoreboard (page 20)
Pool problems
Dunedin’s pools are a success story, with the four main council-managed pools racking up three quarters of a million visits in the 2008/09 financial year. However, all that glitters isn’t gold. Huge demand by casual and fitness swimmers for their turn in the city’s pools has in turn limited access to the water for competitive swimmers and pool sports such as water polo.
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A recent report commissioned by the Dunedin City Council on pool services suggested a three-pronged strategy: upgrades at Moana and St Clair pools, new business practices, and a new pool at Mosgiel and a new inner city training pool.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr