RACHEL PINDER
A multi-million dollar development which will see more waterside apartments springing up in Ahuriri is under way.
Work started last week on top of the Bluewater Hotel in West Quay in a major redevelopment that could cost more than $10 million.
Hotel owner Rodney Green said the whole site was going
though a major overhaul, which will take place in stages. The first stage will involve lifting the roof of the hotel and adding 15 new duplex apartments, which are due to be completed by Christmas. The duplexes will each have an internal staircase linking them to bedrooms upstairs.
Next year, the second stage will involve a 200-space carpark behind the hotel facing West Quay, and in 2008, the former Ahuriri Tavern, known as The Roundhouse, will be demolished or moved, with a further 35 apartments put in its place.
Havelock North-based Fat Parrot Architecture have drawn up the plans and Mr Green said all the new apartments would be part of Bluewater Hotel.
"These are exciting times and I just want to make sure each stage is completed on time.
"Plans are at an early stage at the moment so it's difficult to put a figure on it. But the approximate cost of the redevelopment may be about $10 million," he said.
Resource consent planner Rowan Wallis from Napier City Council confirmed an application had been received for the first stage of the redevelopment.
"We have received a resource consent application to expand the existing floor space to 15 apartment units.
"Any subsequent redevelopment on that site has to be approved by a resource consent application because it affects the Napier City Council's district plan," Mr Wallis said.
Simon Tremain, managing director at Tremain Real Estate Agents, said he had seen the development proposition at the Bluewater Hotel.
"I know the West Quay apartments were built with this development in mind so I think it will have a pretty limited effect on views," he said.
