Bid to set up 4-star hotel in Auckland goes abroad

By ANNE GIBSON

Bayleys Real Estate is trying to find an overseas joint-venture partner or backer to finance a troubled international hotel proposal for Auckland.

This could result in a 21-storey, 240-room hotel being built in the city, variously discussed in papers relating to the deal as a Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza or a Hotel Grand Central.

Auckland City Council said the hotel development had been on the drawing-board since 1995 "but [had been] delayed due to the Asian crisis and other financial difficulties".

The company behind the proposal, Matacorp Investments, has applied to the council for further extensions of resource consent for the hotel, the latest coming today.

Matacorp said Bayleys would market the development overseas, searching for an "outright buyer or a joint-venture partner".

Bayleys is promoting the hotel proposal as "a unique opportunity to participate in the development of a four-star class hotel."

The hotel is planned for the site at 79-89 Customs St, two blocks from Queen St and between Gore and Fort Streets. Consent was given for the hotel in 1995 and time extensions have been granted.

Matacorp today applied for a further two-year extension.

Chefu Wang, Matacorp's managing director, wrote to David Foster of ADC Architects in July, citing problems with getting funding for the hotel and saying the proposal had already cost his company "well over $10 million", which was too much to give up.

"Since August 1997, we have looked offshore for finance as it was not possible to have the project funded by domestic lending institutions," Mr Wang wrote.

He said the first deal was in December 1997 with a Singaporean engineering firm. In 1999, Matacorp got a deal with a Hong Kong finance broker, followed by a subsequent agreement reached last year with a Thai group.

None of the deals resulted in the hotel being built, so Matacorp has turned to Bayleys to find a backer.

"We have authorised Bayleys Real Estate to market the project offshore. They believe some of their offshore investors may come in to take advantage of the low exchange rate."

Bayleys said it would charge Matacorp $4700 to market the deal overseas, but it agreed in May to delay billing until later in the year when Matacorp had the money.

Matacorp owns the Customs St site, which contains several 1890s to 1910 buildings. The brick building at 89 Customs St was demolished in 1996, ready for the new Holiday Inn.