Fighting for Rotorua: Emergency housing out and visitors in - new Fenton St motel owner keeps the faith

Nina Teiri (left) and Isaiah Akurangi help set up newly refurbished units at the Ashleigh Court motel with help from the motel's manager, Sam Ho (in background). Photo / Mead Norton

A Fenton St motel “annihilated” after hosting emergency housing clients has now been renovated by its new owner to host visitors.

Ashleigh Court, on the corner of Wylie and Fenton Sts, is now owned by a Hawke’s Bay family.

The family’s spokeswoman, who spoke on the condition she was not named to protect her family’s privacy, said she jumped at the chance to buy the motel less than a year ago because she loved Rotorua and firmly believed tourism would come “back with a vengeance”.

“We invest long-term in motels, that’s what we do. I bought it as an investment and when we got there it was full of MSD clients.”

In her opinion: “It was in a real bad state. There were dogs and pets everywhere.”

Ashleigh Court motel on the corner of Fenton and Wylie streets. Photo / Mead Norton

The woman said she was shocked to see holes in the walls and the interiors destroyed, and said, in her view, the place had been “annihilated”.

The woman said she set about putting in place an exit strategy for all the emergency housing clients living there.

As the clients slowly found somewhere else to go, she started renovating about four months ago.

The woman said she spent more than $500,000 repainting, recarpeting, refurnishing and replacing everything inside the units.

“They are basically brand new motel units now.”

She has put in place a new lease agreement and has stipulated there is to be no emergency housing at the motel.

“I do believe in Rotorua. We have been in hospitality for over 20 years and we believe it will come back with a vengeance so we are getting in there early. It’s the best time to buy.”

She said her optimism in Rotorua was strong.

“Rotorua has a good mayor and they are trying to solve the problems and they are being proactive. The infrastructure is there and Rotorua is beautiful. I believe [tourists] will come back and when they do they will need somewhere to stay.”

She said she was in Rotorua recently checking on the refurbishment progress and many locals commented they were pleased to see the motel being revamped for visitors.

Ashleigh Court manager Sam Ho believed it was great the new owner was investing so heavily in the motel.

Nina Teiri (left) and Isaiah Akurangi help set up newly refurbished units at the Ashleigh Court motel with help from the motel's manager, Sam Ho (in background). Photo /Mead Norton

He and other staff members, including Isaiah Akurangi and Nina Teiri, spent the past few weeks before Christmas assembling new furniture and getting the rooms ready.

The vacancy signs have gone up and already without advertising, bookings were looking good.

Ho said he had seen a few more tourist buses around Rotorua and it was making people feel more optimistic.

“Everyone is going to be so friendly to tourists because they haven’t seen them for so long.”

Glenholme resident Carolyne Hall, who lives two blocks away from the Ashleigh Court Motel, said she was starting to wish she lived in Wylie St.

“That street must be thrilled to have some reprieve from emergency housing.”

She said she wished the same owner would also buy emergency housing motels near her home.

“Then we can all have a really happy Christmas. It’s a real boost in confidence to know New Zealand business people still believe in our tourism industry returning and are willing to risk investing here in Rotorua after the reputational damage we have endured for three years. Rotorua needs these investors and developers to bring our city back to its pre-Covid prosperity.

Rotorua Accommodation Network chairman Nick Fitzgerald said it was nice to see a significant amount of money spent on a Rotorua motel, which meant a good product could be added to the accommodation sector.

Rotorua’s emergency housing situation

As of October this year, Rotorua had 45 emergency housing motels, 13 which are contracted.

At this same time, 879 people were in temporary housing in Rotorua.

This included emergency housing motels, contracted emergency housing motels, two Covid-response motels - Tuscany Villas and Four Canoes - and one transitional housing motel - 2six5 on Fenton, formerly the Boulevard Motel).

The October figures, published on the Rotorua Housing Accord’s online dashboard, showed 498 adults were in temporary housing in Rotorua and 381 children. Both those figures were down on September when 546 adults and 414 children were in temporary housing.