Hotel developer Fu Wah to bring in 200 Chinese workers to finish Auckland Park Hyatt

The Beijing-based property developer behind the $200 million Park Hyatt hotel in Auckland is reportedly flying up to 200 tradies in from China because of skilled worker shortages.

Fu Wah, the developer building the luxury five-star hotel on Auckland's waterfront, told RNZ that to finish by March next year it planned to bring in up to 200 Chinese workers to help the 300 locals working on the project.

"There'll be a number of skills mainly around fine decorating including stone work, tiling, wallpapering, painting, veneer work - there's quite a lot timber veneer within the hotel, so they'll bring those skills to us," Fu Wah New Zealand general manager Richard Aitken told RNZ.

"Whilst those skills do exist in New Zealand and local workers are very well qualified for this - we need a number of people for a concentrated period of time and we need them in large numbers.

"That's really why we're looking for this workforce to supplement the local labour force that we have working on the hotel," he told RNZ.

Fu Wah International chairman Chiu Yung told the Herald last year that says the hotel on the former Team New Zealand site on Halsey Street was over budget.

While Fu Wah is working with its prime contractors to get escalating costs under control, Chiu says he was seriously considering the postponement of a planned second hotel until the Auckland construction market is in a "more competitive space" and less expensive.

"The initial strategy was to have something less luxurious than the Park Hyatt - a three or four star hotel - however due to the current situation of the Auckland construction market the budget has been driven up," he said last year.

"All markets fluctuate and there will finally be a day when the market goes down."

Fu Wah International president Chiu Yung. Picture / Supplied