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An international hotel giant plans to open a $100 million, 290-room hotel in Auckland's CBD by the middle of 2010.
Paul Richardson, vice-president of Accor for New Zealand and Fiji, said yesterday a new five-star Pullman hotel would be built near the city's waterfront.
The hotel will be aimed at the corporate and meetings market and is earmarked to rise well before the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
Paris-headquartered Accor already runs hotels in 100 countries, employing 170,000 people. In New Zealand, it manages 29 hotels.
A spokeswoman for Accor said private family investor CP Group would develop and own the hotel and Accor would manage it.
CP, named after its patriarch Charles Pandey, has bought a string of hotels in Auckland, spending more than $200 million in the past few years on 10 buildings and forging close links with Accor.
The new hotel is planned to rise on the former Reserve Bank building site opposite the Britomart heritage precinct, on the corner of Customs St and Gore St.
The bank sold its building there in 2001, netting $6 million from an educational institution.
The Pullman brand is new to New Zealand but Accor launched it last year and now has 12 hotels branded Pullman in Europe and Asia.
By the end of next year, it plans to have 59 Pullmans with 15,600 rooms open in 23 countries.
Mr Richardson said Auckland was ideal for a new Pullman.
"We have been looking for a suitable upscale project in Auckland to complement our wide range of mid-scale and economy hotels in the city and this project offers an outstanding location that will prove popular for business travellers, conference groups and leisure travellers," he said.
The hotel will have meeting and conference space for up to 800 delegates, a day spa, pool, gymnasium, restaurant and bar, wireless broadband, 24-hour IT solutions manager, chill-out zones, executive floors, lounges, health club and high-tech facilities for meetings and functions.
Mark Oldershaw, chief executive of the Hotel Council, said a new five-star property would be a tremendous boost to the tourism industry.
"There are very few five-star hotels in New Zealand, so if we want to continue to show ourselves as a premium tourism destination, we need to cater for this market," he said.
"This shows really good confidence in New Zealand."
Auckland needed more five-star hotels, he said, naming Hilton, Westin, SkyCity Grand and Langham as fitting this category.
Accor's 29 hotels in Auckland are run under the Novotel, Mercure, Ibis, all seasons and Formule 1 banners.
WHAT IS PULLMAN?
* A new chain of hotels opened last year in Europe and Asia.
* Named after the opulent Pullman railway carriages.
* These date back to the 1860s and changed overnight rail.
* Now, the name has been given to a luxury hotel brand.
* First Pullman planned for Auckland by Accor of Paris.
