$100m hotel for Dunedin waterfront

A $100 million 28-storey luxury hotel - which would be the tallest

building in Dunedin - is planned for the city's waterfront.

Plans for the five-star hotel on Wharf St were unveiled at a lunchtime

press conference by Steve Rodgers, of Rodgers Law. The identity of
the developers has yet to revealed.
The hotel will have a rooftop restaurant, 164 apartments, 215 rooms
and 121 car-parks.
Resource consent applications are being lodged today and the project
is planned to be completed by 2015, he said.
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull and Tourism Dunedin chief executive Hamish
Saxton also fronted the announcement.
In a statement yesterday, Mr Rodgers said the proposed development
would elevate Dunedin as a tourism destination both domestically and
internationally and would provide significant economic benefits to the
city and surrounding region.
Support for the development included Queenstown businessman Sir
Eion Edgar and Arrowtown businessman Sir Michael Hill, he said.
ODT Friday 11 May, 2012

Progress? Yeah Right.

The hotel is another ill-conceived, grandiose scheme - if we are going

to do some progress in the city, it should be surely in the line of
adding a few more visitor attractions, which (hello!) would surely then
start to validate another hotel. So far we only have one standout
attraction, apart from precincts of so called 'tired old buildings' that
visitors come far and wide to see, and that is the Taieri Gorge Railway.
We have an opportunity to have a steamship sailing up and down the
harbour, a real visitor drawcard (just look how the Earnslaw does) but
the comparitive drop in the bucket cost of overhauling the historic SS
Te Whaka evades the council, she goes for scrap, and instead they go
for a stadium that sits empty for all but a few hours and now a hotel to
do the same. [abridged]
Online submission to the ODT, Pukeko, 7 October 2012

Negative Dunedin
Submitted by lewee on Sat, 06/10/2012 - 10:39am.

What has become of 'My' Dunedin?

A city that was built on the toil of those who came here from far and
wide to make for themselves a better life, with the desire to create a
city that served all its citizens, young and elderly. The same 'Whinge
Crew' of negative people who constantly put forward their views that
Dunedin must not, at any cost, look towards the future and enter the
21st century.
We need to invest in large projects and take into account the huge
spin offs for local businesses and job opportunities for the many
business interests that will be involved. It is a fact that this city lacks
accomodation for major events. I say stop thinking small, and I for
one applaud the project and suggest you look at the cities around the
world and see that buildings above three storeys tall are really quite
normal. I am a ''senior'' and Dunedin is where I live. This city has
provided me with many stunning experiences and I say open your
eyes and embrace the new as the old is really getting tired. I fully
support this venture and am 100% behind that word ''progress''.

Magic fantasy hotel?

Submitted by GeoffHoutman on Mon, 14/05/2012 - 2:51pm.

The video for this project clearly illustrates nearly all of it's failings.
We begin by flying around the beautiful low rise city of Victorian and
Edwardian structures, nothing more than 5 storeys high until- What
The-? Someone has dropped a giant featureless box by the water. 28
storeys? Seriously? Let's ask the dead of Christchurch about the
wisdom of skyscrapers on jelly land.
But, we must admit, this building is magical! For the first half of the
video it is see-through. That's great, that means it won't ruin anyone's
view and also as the video shows, won't cast shadows. Technology
eh?
Learn from Auckland's mistakes. Up north we bought into this stupidity
a couple of times. You lot are smarter than us. Now, prove it.
[Abridged]

Eyesore
Submitted by carolyn townsley on Sun, 13/05/2012 - 6:05pm.

If Dunedin's architecture is such a tourist attraction how can we let

beautiful buildings like the old Post Office and the National Bank on the
exchange stay derelict and empty, while proposing to build such a
monstrosity that would look so out of place in our beautiful city.
it would ruin the skyline, the view from the hills looking towards the
penninsula and in 20 years time will look dated and ugly.
Buildings like the one opposite the old Post Office on Princes St have
been wonderfully restored and modernized and this is the way the
council should be envisioning the future of Dunedin's aesthetics. We
need to treasure our distinct history by valuing the buildings we
already have, not letting them go to ruin. I thought the old Post Office
was going to be turned into a grand hotel? What happened to this
idea?
High St is also an area of grand old architecture being neglected. A
tram going up High St would be a great tourist attraction if the street
was beautified, giving tourists a wonderful view of our city. A train
taking visitors from the cruise ships into town would be another great
idea.
We need to make use of what makes Dunedin unique rather than build
generic structures that could be found anywhere else in the world.
I'm very sad the council does not seem to see a vision like this is
exactly what will ruin our beautiful city.

Tourist economics
Submitted by MikeStk on Sun, 18/08/2013 - 12:34pm.

Lynden: I too am largely against the hotel because of its design - but I
believe that an economic argument can be made against foreign
funding a giant hotel (be it Chinese or Aussie or Kilngon) at this
particular moment.We have a low hotel occupancy rate - a foreign
owned hotel will take it's profits out of the existing economy and spend
them elsewhere, while some of the existing hotels are locally owned
and spend their profits here. Because we have a very low occupancy
rate in the existing hotels the new hotel will naturally take some of
their business. The result will be a lowering of the percentage of
tourist profit that remains in the economy - our overall standard of

living will drop as a result.

Building more empty hotels to attract tourists is the wrong way to
raise tourist volume - no one actually comes here to view the worlds
steepest street, there's only so many trips to see the penguins or
albatrosses daily, the tourist train is only so long.
So lets spend out efforts to make 3 must-see attractions for tourists
travelling the South Island so that people add Dunedin to their
itinerary, at the moment I think we have about one (peninsula wildlife)
- not enough. When it looks like the existing occupancy rate is getting
close to 3/4 full then worry about where they're going to stay.

Dunedin hotel compromise on offer (NZ Herald 29 October, 2012)

The woman behind a controversial $100 million waterfront hotel bid in
Dunedin says she will compromise to secure a deal with the Dunedin City
Council. Jing Song said from Singapore she was prepared to reconsider the
hotel's design, including its height and possibly its location, if that was what
it took.The building would still need to be economic, and she could not say
exactly what changes would be acceptable - or how many floors could be
lost - ahead of mediation talks expected to begin in a few months' time.
The ball was in the council's court while the developers waited to hear
what they might consider acceptable, she said."We will wait for their next
move."Her comments came after the council's hearings committee
declined resource consent for the hotel earlier this month, citing concerns
about a lack of information, the hotel's height and the impact on its
surroundings.
That prompted an appeal to the Environment Court earlier this week by the
company promoting the hotel, Betterways Advisory Ltd, of which Ms Song
was a director.It was expected the appeal would lead to an invitation from
the court for parties to consider mediation talks, in an effort to avoid
lengthy - and expensive - court proceedings.
Ms Song said she remained confident the company's appeal was "on good
grounds", but was prepared to talk to "resolve some problems"."If it's
something we have to do ... we will be keen to work a solution out that
tweaks the design, perhaps lowering some of the floors."Yes, it's a possible
answer," she said.

YEAR 9 SOCIAL STUDIES SOCIAL DECISION MAKING

$100 MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL

Task one: read the articles and online comments

Task two: brainstorm reasons why people are either for or against the hotel
proposal

FOR

AGAINST

Task 3: values continuum

Place the following people on the continuum below. Justify (explain why you put
them where you did) your placement below.

FOR

Lewee:

Geoff Houtman

Pukeko

Steve Rodgers

Carolyn Townsley

AGAINST

TASK 4: PERSPECTIVES
In the spaces below, outline the perspectives of the following people on the hotel
proposal in your own words. Use evidence from the comments to support your
argument.

Lewee: __________________________________________________________
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Glen Houtman:
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TASK 5: SOCIAL DECISION MAKING

In the space below outline what you consider the best outcome to the hotel
proposal should be and give detailed reasons to support your answer:

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