Floating hotel proposed for Oamaru

A floating three-level, four-and-a-half-star hotel has been pitched for Oamaru Harbour. Photo: Supplied

The concept of a multimillion-dollar floating luxury hotel for the harbour was yesterday presented to the Otago Daily Times by the community-owned Oamaru Licensing Trust.

The trust had engaged Christchurch-based architects Stufkens and Chambers and - with an as-yet unnamed New Zealand developer - planned to moor a 40m by 9m, 25-room, three-level, four-and-a-half-star hotel near the waterfront, trust chairman Ali Brosnan said.

The project had reached a stage where ''the relevant authorities'' had been briefed and he did not want the plans to become the subject of gossip and innuendo.

''We are excited about it, but it's got to work financially for the town,'' he said.

''We're reasonably confident that on the indication of figures so far presented to us that there's no reason why it can't work.''

Trust general manager Cathy Maaka said the developer had wanted to stay in the background for now but he owned a barge that would support the hotel and remain under his ownership, but be leased to the trust.

The trust operated a sports bar, a liquor store, the 49-room Brydone Hotel, and the 16-room, four-and-a-half-star Northstar Motel Restaurant and Bar.

The hotel project would be slightly smaller than the roughly $4million redevelopment of that property in 2008 and 2009, Mrs Maaka said.

Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher confirmed he and other Waitaki district councillors were
briefed on the project in June and were provided a ''reasonable bit of detail''.

''There's still plenty of homework to be done before they push the go button, but I think the basis for them is really good. It's pretty exciting,'' Mr Kircher said.

''It's one of those things where we're very interested in seeing something like this happen and [to] get the applications in and so forth.''

The council sought developers for two Oamaru Harbour sites last year but, despite ongoing negotiations with one developer, has yet to reveal any proposals.

The floating hotel would encourage visits to the town and despite some estimates there would be about 100 rooms added in the next several years in Oamaru, ''anecdotally, we know that we are short of higher-end accommodation'', Mr Kircher said.

''As far as the developer is concerned, it is someone who we have a relationship with, who has investments in the district and who is doing developments in the district,'' Mr Kircher said.

''We're comfortable that it would be a quality job.''

University of Otago palaeoecologist Dr Nic Rawlence, one of the scientists who discovered the Otago shag that now nests on Sumpter Wharf, said he would need to see a more detailed proposal, but ''a very large structure'' in the harbour, near the colony, had the ''potential for major disturbance''.

Further, he said, with several proposals for the harbour, including a proposal for a zipline and the construction of a shag viewing area on Sumpter Wharf, he ''would be worrying about the cumulative effect of development''.

''The better idea, I would think, would be less development,'' he said.

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz