How the planned Radisson Red hotel might look at night. Photo / Stonewood Group
How the planned Radisson Red hotel might look at night. Photo / Stonewood Group
Property specialist Stonewood Group plans to convert a 15-level Auckland office block into a 322-room Radisson Red hotel in a job set to be worth about $100 million.
Stonewood executive director Vicki Chow said the new hotel was planned for the office block at 280 Queen St.
That building waspreviously home to Countrywide Bank and National Bank.
The hotel brand did not have a presence in this part of the world, she said.
This will be the second ex-bank office to be converted into a hotel after InterContinental Auckland opened in the former HSBC offices on the city’s waterfront.
Auckland Council’s property arm expressed confidence in the scheme.
Simon Oddie, Eke Panuku Development Auckland priority location director, said the new hotel would make the most of the central location.
“This redevelopment is a real statement of confidence in the city centre and its role as a destination and place of choice for people to visit, live, work and learn,” he said.
Real estate specialist JLL said the offices at 280 Queen St were built in the 1970s. Agents have been advertising shops for lease in the building, stressing the dual Queen and Lorne Sts frontages.
How the planned Radisson Red hotel might look at night. Photo / Stonewood Group
“It has exposure to some of the highest pedestrian foot traffic in New Zealand which is expected to grow further,” JLL said, citing the new City Rail Link’s Te Waihorotiu Station in the mid-town area between Wellesley and Victoria Sts.
That station is due to open in 2026 as the City Rail Link nears completion.
Chow said Queen St had a monthly pedestrian foot traffic count of about 1 million people, so the area was popular.
How the 15-level offices at 280 Queen St might look once converted into a Radisson Red hotel. Photo / Stonewood Group
Stonewood Group is headquartered in Shed 19 on Princes Wharf, was founded in 1994, and says it manages about $1 billion of New Zealand assets.
Stonewood Key is an associate of the group and a residential developer because the Chow family and ex-Prime Minister Sir John Key and his son Max formed an alliance.
Vicki Chow said the new hotel would have a rooftop restaurant and bar.
All up, 11 levels of 280 Queen St will dedicated to the hotel and three levels will be retail, with the rooftop and bar on the top floor.
This is not the only ex-office block planned to be a hotel in response to New Zealand’s growing tourism trade, although monthly figures show visitor arrivals have plateaued at slightly over 80 per cent of pre-Covid levels.
A full recovery of what was once New Zealand’s top export earner is not expected until next year.
StatsNZ data out in January showed November visitor arrivals were 303,400, 82 per cent of the pre-Covid-19 number of 372,100 for the same month in 2019.
Auckland has several new hotels including IHG’s new InterContinental Auckland at One Queen on Quay St opposite the ferry building. That hotel is also in a refurbished ex-office block, now called the Deloitte Centre, which was also previously home to a bank.
The Deloitte Centre was previously known as the HSBC Centre. Precinct Properties spent $310m converting the building soon to be new offices for law firm Bell Gully.
InterContinental Auckland operates on 11 levels of that 21-level block.
In April, SkyCity Entertainment Group is due to open its new Horizon Hotel between Hobson and Nelson Sts beside the New Zealand International Convention Centre, after delays from the October 2019 fire.
SkyCity will then have 938 rooms in three Auckland hotels including the SkyCity Hotel and The Grand by SkyCity.
Horizon Hotel has 303 rooms, including 10 suites.
An airbridge above Hobson St is one entry point, but there are many others.
On December 12, Te Arikinui Pullman Auckland Airport Hotel was opened at Auckland Airport. That is 100m from the international terminal, a 50-50 joint venture between Tainui Group Holdings and the airport.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
