By Anne Gibson
A six-level hotel is being planned for the former America's Cup Expo pavilion site on the edge of the Viaduct Harbour.
With the Auld Mug retained and the pavilion dismantled, land owner Viaduct Harbour Holdings is negotiating to have a hotel of at least six levels built on the now vacant site.
It is ready to cash in on the big win.
One of Auckland's best pieces of land, the prominent inner-harbour site is on the corner of Viaduct Harbour Ave - a recently created street - and Halsey St.
Various sites have been looked at for the hotel, says the company's chief executive, Chris Parkinson.
However, the site being considered is towards the west and alongside the three recently completed grey Maritime Square office blocks.
"We need to finalise the designs and it's a fluid issue right now. Work is still in progress on it," Parkinson says.
"We're looking at the feasibility of the design, getting an owner and operator and a developer, and they are all ingredients which are part of the normal process."
Viaduct Holdings' directors include some of New Zealand's wealthiest people - including Trevor Farmer and Adrian Burr - whose net worth exceeds $100 million.
Regardless of the developments about to take place in the area now under the spotlight on the western side of Viaduct Harbour towards Westhaven Marina, public access will not be a problem, Parkinson says.
A landscaped and paved public walkway 7m to 12m wide along the water's edge will soon be built along the entire basin. This will significantly extend the existing access, carrying it into previously secure zones where the syndicate bases were housed.
"When the syndicates leave, access will be formalised."
Parkinson will not discuss development options for this land, but rules out the possibility of a retail development on it, saying this would simply not work.
He emphasises that Viaduct Holdings is not a developer. "We are investors and ground lease owners, so the ground lease is our sole focus. But we're trying to look at what could go there and looking at the feasibility of a hotel."
The company will negotiate with the hotel developer, the operator and manager, he says.
"We've tried ever since we started to get a hotel down here."
Zoning restrictions limit the hotel's height to 24m or the equivalent of about six levels.
"Ideally, a higher hotel would work, as we wouldn't block out any views."
Viaduct Holdings paid $75 million three years ago for the 18ha of land it owns around the waterfront.
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