Skinny city pad sells for $14m

Rooms will rent for $70-a-night when Accor takes over Columbard. Picture / Dean Purcell

Local property investor CP Group has paid more than $14 million for Auckland's Columbard corporate crash pad on Wyndham St in the CBD, according to the hotel's new manager.

French-headquartered hotelier Accor said it would take over running the 144-room block which had been sold to CP Group by Staples Rodway, receivers of Columbard Wyndham St.

Peter Chevin's company went into receivership earlier this year owing almost $500,000.

He developed the skinny tower, offering rooms which were smaller than double prison cells at just 13sq m but with double bed, kitchenette, bathroom, laundry, TV, computer desk and balcony.

Michael Issenberg, Accor's Asia Pacific managing director, said rooms in the Formule 1 Auckland hotel would be rented for $70 a night.

Accor has more than 600 Formule 1 hotels operating in 13 countries. The group says it hopes soon to open the budget-style hotels in Wellington and Christchurch, after aggressively expanding the brand in Australia.

Accor is also considering opening a Formule 1 hotel at Auckland International Airport.

When the Columbard opened two years ago, rooms went for $220 and $295 a week, or about $11,000 a year.

But Issenberg said the hotel would become "the city's premier budget hotel" and he expected to expand Accor's business in Auckland via Columbard.

The street-level cafe in the block which closed earlier this year would also reopen, a spokesman said.

CP and Accor have other alliances via Accor's Mercure chain, he said. CP owns the Mercure Hotel on Queen St near the Fort St intersection. CP also owns the Mercure in Dunedin and has bought the Mercure Hotel Auckland at the intersection of Queen St and Customs St, the spokesman said.