The hotel employed about 160 staff, who have remained on full pay since the February quake.
"After careful analysis, our structural engineers have reached the conclusion that the building needs to come down. The structure is noticeably leaning and cannot be restored to the building codes that were in place at the time of the earthquakes. It's essentially broken beyond repair," said Eureka Funds Management fund manager, Glen Boultwood.
"We've investigated every possible avenue to restore this hotel. Based on significantly higher construction costs and additional costs resulting from necessary changes to building codes in the city, the fact remains that it is financially prohibitive for us to re-establish the hotel in Christchurch."
Crowne Plaza Christchurch was managed by IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group). Full entitlements have been provided to remaining employees of the hotel, along with assistance seeking employment in other parts of New Zealand and abroad.
"We're working with IHG to help as many of our employees who are able to relocate, find fresh opportunities throughout New Zealand, Australia and further afield," Mr Boultwood said.
Eureka is currently consulting with the City of Christchurch and its engineers to schedule a date for demolition.
In May, the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority ordered the demolition of Christchurch's Copthorne Hotel, while the Millennium Hotel Christchurch will not be able to accept any reservations until May 2012
'Traumatic day' for quake victims
Meanwhile, a third of Kaiapoi has had a hole punched through it and homeowners are thousands of dollars out of pocket, with 940 homes in the earthquake-battered Canterbury town today targeted for abandonment, Labour says.
Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee today announced 860 properties in Kaiapoi and 80 in Pines Beach would be reclassified from the orange zone to the red zone, meaning they will need to be abandoned.
A further 220 properties in northern Kaiapoi have been rezoned green, or safe to rebuild, while 70 in western Kaiapoi remain in the orange zone, and require further investigation.
The Government will offer to buy the 940 red zone properties at the 2008 valuations, while a decision on the 70 remaining orange zone properties would be made within the next few weeks.
Mr Brownlee said today's decision was not easy, given the size of the town and the incredible patience shown by its residents since the first earthquake in September.
"Many options have been exhaustively considered, however, in full evaluation of the facts, today's decision was also clear cut,'' he said.
Mr Brownlee said a "huge amount'' of geotechnical engineering advice and a range of other factors were considered.
"One inescapable fact was that the land and critical infrastructure beneath the hardest hit parts of Kaiapoi and Pines Beach was so badly damaged that any remediation solution would have required the complete removal of all homes we're zoning red today.''
Waimakariri Labour MP Clayton Cosgrove said Kaiapoi residents would have certainty and relief after almost a year of waiting for an announcement - but there would also be a lot of trauma and stress.
"A third of Kaiapoi has got a hole punched through it,'' he told NZPA.
"This will be very, very traumatic for folks, and people will now sit down over a coffee and a beer tonight, work out what their future holds and work out what the dollars will be.''
Mr Brownlee had repeatedly assured people their equity would be preserved, but Mr Cosgrove said some residents had done the maths and would be out of pocket.
"Sadly, we do have examples now where people feel they could be $100,000 to $130,000 short, as they've done the calculations. It is a very traumatic day,'' he said.
Mr Cosgrove also raised questions over the notice given ahead of the announcement, saying people were desperate for detail but had only learned of it in the newspaper this morning.
Mr Brownlee spoke with him only an hour before the announcement and a hastily-planned briefing did not happen, he said.
Mr Cosgrove also accused Mr Brownlee of shrugging the matter off at press conference.
"No-one had any notice of this, so for Mr Brownlee to try and be cute about my whereabouts says a lot,'' he said.
A spokesman for Mr Brownlee said Mr Cosgrove had misrepresented what happened.
Mr Brownlee had to brief the Waimakariri District mayor, chief executive and councillors before Mr Cosgrove, which took place last night. He then tried to contact Mr Cosgrove early this morning but had to leave a message.
Mr Brownlee said it was important to release information to people as soon as possible.
Personalised packs had been due to arrive today to coincide with the announcement, but disruptions to postal services had prevented that, so packs would arrive in the next few days.
- NZPA
