<\/p>\n
\nTongariro Mayor Weston Kirton wants the government to consider a proposal to return Chateau Tongariro to its former status as a hotel.
\nPhoto: Jimmy Ellingham \/ RNZ\n<\/p>\n
Tongariro’s mayor says the government should consider a proposal from an unnamed investor to return the Chateau Tongariro to its former status as a hotel.<\/p>\n
The heritage building has been sitting empty since it was closed in February 2023 due to its earthquake risk, and the government has said it could be demolished or decommissioned.<\/p>\n
Mayor Weston Kirton told Nine to Noon the response<\/a> to a petition he put to the government<\/a> to preserve the building was encouraging, but there were still many issues to resolve.<\/p>\n “We have an investor – a New Zealander – who has experience in high-end hotels, 5-star hotels, and heritage buildings and has a history around this type of activity.”<\/p>\n The investor was willing to put down about $100 million of private money to refurbish and repair the Chateau, Kirton said.<\/p>\n He was also asking for a 120-year lease, which is significantly more than the government usually allows, he added.<\/p>\n The government preferred to talk in terms of 30-year leases, which would discourage anyone from making such a significant investment into the Chateau, Kirton said.<\/p>\n The building has been in the hands of the Department of Conservation (DOC) since it was closed, as it sits on conservation land.<\/p>\n He pointed out that while the government was making a decision on what to do with the building, it was gradually falling further into disrepair.<\/p>\n “Every year that goes by adds to the expenditure on that particular building.”<\/p>\n Although it was important for DOC to maintain control over conservation land alongside local iwi, it was a pity the government would not consider carving out the land around the Chateau for a potential sale, Kirton said.<\/p>\n “That’s unfortunate,” he said – although he agreed that would set quite a precedent for future concessions.<\/p>\n For a deal to get done that would work for the investor, there would likely need to be changes to the Conservation Act in Parliament, Kirton said.<\/p>\n “That’s not hard for them to do … all they need to do now is put it up to Parliament to actually get it over the line and get on with the job.”<\/p>\n He said they had held talks with local iwi, who were “very interested” by the investor’s proposal.<\/p>\n “They are very passionate about the activities that could take place there, and it’s because they’ve been involved over the last few decades.<\/p>\n “This is not new to iwi – they see the potential for investments themselves.”<\/p>\n Kirton said it was his understanding that DOC and the government had not engaged iwi to the same level as the private investor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tongariro Mayor Weston Kirton wants the government to consider a proposal to return Chateau Tongariro to its former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-276989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}