$15M hotel proposal depends on Karamea-Collingwood road

Press, 25 July 1985, Page 35

$15M hotel proposal depends on Karamea-Collingwood road

The building of a $lO million, 200-bed tourist hotel complex high in the hills behind Motueka depends on whether the proposed Karamea-Collingwood road goes ahead. The site for the proposed hotel is owned by Mr Ray Gatenby, a Motueka farmer, contractor and property developer, who also has plans to build a restaurant, golf course, swimming pool and tennis court there, as well as develop a deer farm. The land — known locally as High Peak — is at an altitude of 730 m in the headwaters of the Brooklyn and Little Sydney Rivers. In a straight line, the site is just skm from Motueka but it is presently serviced by a winding, 15km private access road. Mr Gatenby would not name his proposed backers but said they were American and European hotel chains, neither of which was yet represented in New Zealand, but which intended to spend large amounts of money in this country — so why not Nelson? There had been other vague proposals for a new hotel in the Nelson province, he said. “As I understand it, Tahuna had the front running, and Kaiteriteri was the second choice, but my backers are interested only in High Peak,” Mr Gatenby said. The two key factors for the hotel proceeding were: © The construction of the Karamea-Collingwood road. • The promotion of Nelson province as part of the Greater Wellington tourist area. “If the Karamea-Colling-wood road goes ahead, raising the money for the hotel will be a mere formality,” Mr Gatenby said. “If there is an announcement of the road going through, work will start on the hotel within two years. If the road doesn’t go ahead, that might put the hotel back about five years. “Tourism in New Zealand is rising at about 11 per cent per annum, with

Queenstown exceeding that, but the figure is rising only by 4 per cent in Nelson because we are missing the mainstream of tourists. “Obviously, the KarameaCollingwood road would help boost the Nelson tourist trade up to the national average. “Nelson is in the Greater Wellington tourist area, which extends from New Plymouth and Napier in the north, to Westport and Kaikoura in the south. “To get Government and Departmental approval for development in the Nelson area, we must have the support of Wellington, which is the seat of Government. “Therefore, Nelson has to be promoted on the Greater Wellington level. “There are hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment waiting to be used on projects like the KarameaCollingwood road, and there probably are 4000 skilled workmen who have nowhere to go. “The building of this road would not create 4000 jobs for skilled workmen, but it would create work for them in other industries,” Mr Gatenby said.