A ten-storey apartment and hotel development for central Lower Hutt has been given resource consent by Hutt City Council.

The proposal is to add three levels to the top of the four-storey former BNZ building in central High St and to build a 10-storey 64-unit apartment development behind it.

Property owner USAR Commercial director Raman Sarin said they were still working with the council before making a decision to proceed.

He expected the High St development, which would provide 45 residential units or up to 60 hotel rooms, would begin next year.

This would involve stripping the present High St block and building on top.

“We think we will do the hotel first and we are working with the council to see how we can tie it up with its development of its new events or convention centre.”

The 10-storey apartment block fronting on to Dudley St would be a mixture of one, two and even three bedroom own-your-own or rental apartments.

“They’ll be a good four star luxury product,” said Sarin, whose company has owned the property for about seven years.

The former BNZ building has a hairdresser, a medical centre and a clothing outlet on the ground floor and legal firms lease office space upstairs.

Sarin, who is chief executive of VR Hotels – which has about 1000 rooms in Auckland and others in Rotorua, Hamilton and Invercargill and is a partner in a consortium which has another 1000 hotel rooms in Australia and the United States – said the hotel would be the best in Lower Hutt.

Plans for the development have been drawn up by Stephen White of Design Club Architecture.

Source: The Dominion Post