New hotel plan for Metropolis tower

The Metropolis tower. Photo / Nicola Topping

A businessman who lives in Auckland's 350-apartment luxury Metropolis tower wants to run about a third of the building as a hotel.

Daniel Nicholson, managing director of NicholsonCapital, said he had lived on level 26 since 2004 and had been negotiating with the Metropolis body corporate to start a hotel there.

Former hotel operator Millennium left the tower almost a year ago.

Nicholson wants an initial 100 units rebranded Hotel Grand Metropolis and is critical of the building management and the tower's history.

"It's an amazing building to live in but it's been run into the ground from day one," Nicholson said.

However, he does not have a deal as yet and acknowledged Dave and Cheryl Burgess of Metropolis Residences have a contract and are renting a large number of apartments.

Dave Burgess said yesterday his contract had at least six months to run and no notice had been given to end his involvement with Metropolis.

Nicholson said he had been negotiating with the body corporate for some time and had put a huge amount of work and money into the project.

He plans to open the areas on the ground level - once the Courthouse Bar and Courthouse Restaurant - as the hotel's food and beverage business.

These areas have been shut and were last run as dining and drinking areas under former hotel operator Singapore-based Ascott.

Auckland business couple Sally and Mark Synnott are converting an upper-level area into an apartment but Nicholson said this still left the entrance-level areas through the old Magistrates' Court for a hotel food and beverage business.

If he succeeds in opening a hotel again in Metropolis on Courthouse Lane, Nicholson will be the fourth operator after Summerset, Ascott and Millennium ran parts of the building.

Nicholson said he had backing from Howard Properties, which owned a large number of units in the building.

He also wants to offer apartment owners the chance to have their places refurbished at concessionary rates under a bulk contract being negotiated with construction and fitout specialists Scope Projects.

"The building is almost 10 years old and even though it was completed to a luxury standard, things like the paint, carpets and furnishings need to be updated for us to truly claim a five-star standard," Nicholson said.

The same styles and colours will be used throughout and adhere to guidelines to be in keeping with the fundamental design, he said.

Public or common areas would also be freshened up, he said.