A HUGE HOTEL

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 50, 21 May 1927, Page 1

A HUGE HOTEL

AUCKLAND SCHEME

TEN STOREY IN VICTORIA ST. PRIME MINISTER’S “BLESSING” AUCKLAND has in prospect, a ten-storey hotel, on the most modern lines, surmounted by an enclosed winter garden, facing on Albert Park, and towering six storeys above the present Central Hotel, complete with a basement garage for 50 cars. The Prime Minister was asked to meet the directors this afternoon, and give his "blessing" to the proposal.

The proposal was first taken in hand by a promoting l >mpany known as the Unique Properties, Ltd., and the prospectus for the Hotel Auckland, Ltd., is about to be put on the market. The directors are Messrs. T. J. W. Buxton, D. R. Caldwell, J. C. Craig. A. Eccles, A. M. Ferguson, G. L. Thorburn, and the secretary, Mr. G. W. Hutchinson.

The site of the proposed hotel is on the rectangle formed by High Street. Victoria Street and Kitchener Street, and an option on the property at £70,000 has been secured. The company will have a capital of 200.0000 shares at £l, and the completed hotel is estimated to cost about £204,000. The present proposal, however, is to leave the top two floors and garden in the meantime, and to erect the remainder at a cost of £171,520. Above the garage there will be a public restaurant, and commencing on the level of Kitchener Street will be the hotel proper, with 152 rooms, capable of housing 200. The majority of the rooms will have bathrooms and sitting-rooms attached, and the bathrooms will be on the inside, instead of on the New Zealand principle—forced by building regulations—of having them on the outside of the building, radiating a conglomeration of unsightly pipes about the building. The directors told the Prime Minister that every endeavour would be made to include all the comfort, and most of the luxuries, of the leading hotels of London and New York. Mr. Coates: And what do you want me to do about it One of the directors said they wanted a “blessing” on the proposal. Mr. Coates: Well, as far as the head of a Government can commit himself, you can have that. He went on to remark that if thirty wealthy tourists were landed on any town in New Zealand, there was a difficulty about suitable accommodation. There was accommodation, but it was not the sort of accommodation that was required by some of the people. ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY “I can sincerely point out the necessity for something of this sort,” remarked the Prime Minister. “It is absolutely necessary before the Government can indulge in the amount of propaganda that the people seem to want. There have been various proposals in connection with inducing tourist traffic to our country, but I have had to turn them down flat, for this very reason of accommodation. If the accommodation is here these people will take it. and pay prices that New Zealand has never heard of, except from America, Canada, or even Australia, which charges much more than we do. SIXTEEN PER CENT. RETURN Mr. Hutchison remarked that at an estimate they could run the hotel on the room-and-bathroom basis at 27s 6d per day. and pay 16 per cent, on their money. Reviewing the New Zealand position the Prime Minister stated that Auckland and Dunedin wanted depots, and there were improvements wanted at Rot- a and Queenstown, after which New Zealand would not be so badly served. Auckland came first, as it was the landing port. In connection with the proposed hotel he was prepared to do anything to receive tourists in a manner that would be a credit to the city and the Dominion.