Minister supports 200-bed plan

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32588, 23 April 1971, Page 1

Minister supports 200-bed plan

The Minister of Tourism (Mr Walker) said yesterday that he was hopeful the “planned 101 - bedroom tourist hotel on the Victoria Square site would get off the ground within the next few weeks.”

The Minister, questioned, said he was referring to the plans submitted by Mr P. C. Mangos to build a 12-storey hotel on the site of the existing Federal and Market hotels. S, “Mr Mangos has submitted excellent feasibility studies to the Tourist Accommodation Development Committee in support of his application for a loan, or guarantee, and has given us all the required information.

“Unfortunately, Mr Mangos has not yet been able to obtain enough finance from outside Government sources to enable us to invest

Government money or guarantee a loan in the venture,” Mr Walker said.

“To my local Labour M.P. critics, I merely say that anyone with sufficient capital of their own can build a tourist hotel.” Private sources Mr Walker said , Tadco would be holding a meeting with lending institutions soon to discuss investment from private sources in tourist hotels.

Mr Mangos yesterday said that Mr Walker and Tadco knew from the feasibility studies on his project, made by a national firm of accountants, that a 55 per cent occupancy rate would return a good profit.

“Mr Walker and officers of his department and Tadco have been most co-operative and helpful,” he said.

A spokesman for Williams Holdings also said that the statement by Mr Walker that

a high-rise, downtown hotel would have to achieve an 82 per cent occupancy rate to show a reasonable return was inaccurate.

Williams Holdings has plans to build a high-rise tourist hotel at the comer of Kilmore and Durham streets.

“Tadco does not have all the information it requires on the Williams Holdings Duke of Avon project, and the company has not met the requirements normally needed when a loan is provided,” Mr Walker said.

“The Duke of Avon project and Mr Mangos’s are the only tourist hotel applications before Tadco from Christchurch. My latest information is that Williams Holdings is not intending to go ahead with its plans for the Duke of Avon Hotel at present.

“I do not class Mr Mangos’s project as a high-rise tourist hotel project, as it is for only 200 beds. The type of high-rise hotel my depart-

ment was considering when referring to an 82 per cent occupancy rate to obtain a profit would contain a minimum of 400 beds,” Mr Walker said. Car parking He agreed with Mr Mangos that a tourist hotel on the Victoria Street site would not need a large car park because the majority of overseas tourists travelled by air, bus or rental vehicles.

He considered that the site for the proposed hotel was an excellent one; and he hoped that Mr Mangos could arrange sufficient finance to meet Tadco requirements, Mr Walker said.

Mr Mangos, the proprietor of the Market Hotel, said the proposed tourist hotel would have public bars in the basement, with separate entrances from the hotel. The plans were for three shops, tearooms and hotel foyer on the ground floor. A licensed restaur-

ant, with bar facilities would be on the first floor, with eight floors of accommodation

above. A panoramic-view restaurant with dine and dance facilities would be on- the second-to-top floor, with four luxury suites on the very top. He said he had been approached by Williams Holdings and Gemini Hotels, a Palmerston North company proposing to build five hotels in New Zealand, in the last two days. Both had .expressed interest in the site. “The Mayor of Christchurch (Mr A. R. Guthrey) has been most helpful. If we can get finance from private sources, we are guaranteed Government finance.

“The Tadco interest rate limit is a bit low for private investors because of all the inflation, but we are still hopeful because of the splendid site and independent reports that show the venture will be profitable.”