May opening for new hotel

By Graham Skellern
Australia's third largest hotel operator will be managing the new $30 million complex on Dive Crescent.
Many of the 120 hotel rooms and 15 luxury apartments are being built on three piers jutting out into the harbour next to Mission Cemetery and the harbour bridge.
The apartments have already been sold to individuals.
Australian company Mirvac Hotels and Resorts announced yesterday it had signed a long-term contract with developers Geoff and Shelley Payne to operate the complex, to be known as The Sebel Trinity Wharf Tauranga.
Mrs Payne said the hotel and apartments were being built with concrete blocks and it should be closed-in by Christmas.
Once the roof was on and the windows in, it should take another four months to finish.
"We are aiming to be open by the end of May ... the building has taken a little longer than expected because there is a shortage of bricklayers.
"They are so hard to come by and we've only had six of them at one time," she said.
Trinity Wharf will be the first internationally branded hotel in the Western Bay, and it is Mirvac's third New Zealand hotel - after The Sebel Suites and Quay West Suites in Auckland.
Construction of a Novotel Hotel in Durham St opposite Baycourt will also begin early next year and take 12 months to complete.
Visitors to Tauranga will then have the choice of four hotels - including Hotel Armitage and Hotel on Devonport.
Mrs Payne said she was "tickled pink" to obtain the management expertise of Mirvac.
"They are so pro-active and are delightful to work with. Mirvac will bring a mix of corporate and holiday business to the city.
"They are already talking about encouraging their corporate clients to have business conferences in Tauranga rather than Australia," she said.
"Having the hotel sitting over the water fits in nicely with the product they've got in Australia."
Mirvac manages 29 hotels and resorts in Australia, and was this year named the best accommodation chain in Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific at the HM Travel Industry awards.
Its Sea Temple Resort and Spa in north Queensland was named the best new hotel in the same awards.
Janet McBain, Mirvac's New Zealand general manager, said Trinity Wharf complemented the two Auckland hotels - and the company had been looking to expand in New Zealand.
Tim Burgess, Tourism Bay of Plenty's general manager, said the new hotel would provide a boost to the corporate and meetings' market.
He said people attending Meetings 2005 (trade show) were realising how many venues and supporting services were available in the region. With 44 per cent of New Zealand's population living within a 200km radius of Tauranga, it had become a particularly attractive alternative to Auckland, Hamilton, Rotorua and Wellington for the corporate and meetings market, he said.
The Sebel Trinity Wharf will be able to host conferences with up to 250 delegates, and the meeting space can be divided into five areas, including two boardrooms and patios.
The hotel will also have a restaurant and bar on one of the piers, gymnasium, outdoor swimming pool, undercover carparking, and a pontoon mooring for product launches and special events.