Team NZ site flagged for hotel

An artist's impression of the new Auckland waterfront hotel.

A Beijing developer has won the right to build a $200 million five-star hotel on the Auckland waterfront site currently occupied by the Team New Zealand headquarters.

Mayor Len Brown yesterday announced the Wynyard Quarter project by Fu Wah International Group, after an agreement was signed last month. The deal is subject to Overseas Investment Office approval.

The hotel will rise on Halsey St, off Fanshawe St, opposite ASB North Wharf.

Fu Wah president Chiu Yung said his business would work with Waterfront Auckland, whose chief executive, John Dalzell, said the project was a big step forward for the waterfront.

The deal was due to be announced when Waterfront Auckland had a pre-Christmas board meeting but no news emerged until yesterday.

Mr Brown said the hotel would be completed by 2017 and was a sign of the Auckland economy's resurgence.

"This marks the start of a new era for private capital-funded infrastructure projects that have the potential to deliver jobs and growth."

Four Auckland hotels are planned, most of them office building conversions.

Consulting business Horwath HTL said the city could get an extra 570 hotel rooms because demand and room rates were up.

One of the more advanced projects is the former Reserve Bank building on Customs St East, to be run by French-based Accor.