{"id":54279,"date":"2025-10-01T14:11:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T14:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/54279\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T14:11:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T14:11:18","slug":"governments-earthquake-rule-changes-could-cut-chateau-tongariro-costs-by-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/54279\/","title":{"rendered":"Government\u2019s earthquake rule changes could cut Chateau Tongariro costs by 20%"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kirton said the Government\u2019s proposals were practical, realistic and potentially a huge win for both the Chateau and Ruapehu\u2019s small towns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese proposed changes introduce a much fairer balance between the costs of strengthening work and the actual risks that earthquake-prone buildings pose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will help make remediation work more affordable, economic and achievable, which is exactly what our communities need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kirton said Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk had indicated that a targeted retrofit approach on projects like the Chateau could reduce strengthening costs by around 20% on average.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the Chateau, where estimates for a complete refurbishment are up to $100+ million<\/a>, this is huge,\u201d Kirton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will significantly lower the financial risks for potential investors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Chateau closed at the beginning of 2023. Photo \/ Jimmy Ellingham, RNZ<\/p>\n

Kirton said the Chateau was a treasured part of the area\u2019s heritage, and had been a vital contributor to its economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need rules that support its restoration and future, rather than stand in the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said talks were being held with a New Zealand-based investor and hoped the change in earthquake strengthening rules would help get the project over the line.<\/p>\n

However, the earthquake strengthening rules weren\u2019t the only challenge potential investors in the chateau faced.<\/p>\n

Kirton said the hotel sat on conservation land, and another barrier was how long a lease arrangement could take place for under the DoC estate.<\/p>\n

He said that to get the Chateau back to its former glory significant investment was needed, and that required long-term investment.<\/p>\n

He said talks with local iwi hap\u016b and the Department of Conservation to see \u201cwhether or not there\u2019s a way forward for an investor to actually invest that amount of money\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said they also expected more clarity by the end of the year from Government.<\/p>\n

– RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kirton said the Government\u2019s proposals were practical, realistic and potentially a huge win for both the Chateau and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2327,3595,4500,21816,802,124,3588,6752,29891,7237,29890,111,43,139,69,46028,46029],"class_list":["post-54279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2327","tag-by","tag-changes","tag-chateau","tag-costs","tag-could","tag-cut","tag-earthquake","tag-gibbens","tag-governments","tag-krystal","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rule","tag-tongariro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54279","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=54279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}