Tim Alpe at the LyLo which has tapped into the airline industry for digital technology. Photo / Dean Purcell.
Tim Alpe at the LyLo which has tapped into the airline industry for digital technology. Photo / Dean Purcell.
The building which houses Auckland’s newest hotel is under contract to be sold by ASX-listed Centuria to another listed Australian business EVT which owns the New Zealand tourism business Jucy Snooze.
Tim Alpe, Jucy Snooze founder and managing director of a new brand LyLo, said the business heworks for - EVT - was buying the 6000sq m building at 54 Cook St at the Nelson St intersection.
That is due to open next month as the city’s newest 300-bed hotel in the refurbished, repurposed ex-office block. Alpe can’t say the sale price but Auckland Council values the building on a 1388sq m site at $16 million.
“We’ve just exchanged contracts and we’re working through the process. It made commercial sense for us to acquire the property. We want to roll this brand out in New Zealand, Australia and beyond,” Alpe said of the new LyLo.
The building is to be branded LyLo “because it’s a fun name and represents the clientele we’ll have. It’s focusing on savvy, cost-conscious travellers”.
Tim Alpe says pods are attracting a whole new market. Photo / file
Lylo will offer 190-bed sleeping pods, 37 double rooms with shared bathrooms, 70 hotel rooms each with ensuites, and a communal kitchen is also being offered.
Pods will start from $55/night, private rooms with shared facilities for around $109/night and ensuite rooms for around $150/night, Alpe said.
The pods were designed in New Zealand and manufactured in China, he said.
The hotel will be self-service check-in. Each pod is 2m long by 1.5m wide and comes with USB ports, lights and fans. Lockers for storage are separate from the pods and entered via Bluetooth. Some rooms are female-only while others are unisex. Pod rooms for females come with robes and the rooms are wallpapered. Bathrooms in those areas have full makeup stations.
Most rooms have eight pods but some have six and some have four, Alpe said.
54 Cook St in the CBD. Photo / Google Maps
Cape Interiors + Construction was the main contractor for the construction. The architecture firm was CPRW and the designer of the bar and ground-floor fit-out was CTRL Space.
“It’s been a four-year project. It was very stop-start because of the pandemic,” Alpe said.
The four-level building was built for Kodak New Zealand in 1968, he said.
The building was “pretty much a shell”, Alpe said.
He said he had worked closely with Centuria and the architects to design what he says was the best offering.
“Lockdowns created problems but there were also challenges getting materials to the site, including Gib at times. That caused us headaches along the way. Everyone’s had issues getting products and it wasn’t just Gib alone.”
People aged 18 to 35-year-old had dominated pod hotel businesses. But people travelling for work were a new target, families also take out full pod rooms “so it’s not just your traditional backpacker. The hasn’t been seen in New Zealand before”, Alpe said.
Jucy Snooze hotels in Christchurch and Queenstown will be re-branded LyLo once the Auckland business opens on December 1, although test groups were already staying in part of the Cooks St building, he said.
The new brand was launched on Friday “then we’ll open it up to the general public”.
