Rotorua’s new inner-city apartments are for students, not homeless

House of Elliott Hairdressing owner Craig Elliott outside the 14 new apartments on Pukuatua St. Photo / Andrew Warner

Auckland developers have confirmed new central city Rotorua apartments will be offered to students, quelling fears they might house the homeless.

The decision has come as a relief to long-time neighbouring business owner Craig Elliott after what he describes as years of unruly behaviour that he attributed to social housing tenants in the area.

The former McLeod’s Booksellers building at 1148 Pukuatua St was sold in March 2022 to developers Patsy Chen and Mark Tung.

The bookstore relocated and the new owners stripped the building to make way for a two-storey apartment block offering 14 one-bedroom units. They are due to be completed at the end of this month.

Craig Elliott says he is thrilled to know that social housing tenants are no longer being considered for the new apartments on Pukuatua St. Photo / Andrew Warner

Chen said in 2022 that the the units would provide much-needed housing in Rotorua and would be aimed at long-term rentals, Airbnbs or accommodation for tertiary students, dependent on where the demand was.

Tung told the Rotorua Daily Post he had considered working with Visions of a Helping Hand Trust but had recently decided against that, saying the central city was trying to re-establish itself as a tourist destination.

The trust operates contracted emergency housing motels and also has rental properties.

“There is a need [to house homeless] but we have to find other ways to find accommodation for them,” Tung said. “We want to keep Rotorua happy and alive.”

He had not yet informed Visions of a Helping Hand Trust chief executive Tiny Deane of the decision, Tung said on Tuesday.

“We have not quite denied him yet. We just say ‘no, no, not now’. But for us it is no.”

He and Chen previously ran Holiday Rotorua - New York Style Apartments, also on Pukuatua St, which was used for social housing after the downturn of visitors.

“It was very different and I don’t want to go back there … It was the only option we had but it wasn’t treated very nice [by the tenants].”

He said there were students at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology and at a nearby English language academy who would be interested in the new apartments.

He and Chen were in the process of deciding a weekly rental price that would include internet and power. A manager would be employed who would live nearby but not onsite.

Deane declined to comment on the trust’s potential involvement with the apartments.

The new apartments on Pukuatua St are beside House of Elliott Hairdressing. Photo / Andrew Warner

Elliott, who owns neighbouring House of Elliott Hairdressing on Pukuatua St, was delighted by the developers’ decision.

There were negative effects of having emergency housing motels in the years since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and he had been concerned these effects could be repeated with social housing tenants in the new apartments.

“It’s the general unruly behaviour not welcome in our street again, we have had years of that.”

Elliott, whose family has run the hairdressing business at the site for 47 years, said he was thrilled to know social housing was no longer being considered.

The front of the 14 new apartments on Pukuatua St, which have windows beside the footpath. Photo / Andrew Warner

However, he questioned how the apartments’ design had been granted council consent given that the bedroom windows were so close to the footpath.

Rotorua Lakes Council community and district development group manager Jean-Paul Gaston said the consent did not allow the building to be used for emergency housing or transitional housing.

If that was to change, it would need to get resource consent for a non-complying activity.

He said that, under the previous rules of the District Plan, the council could not decline the development, which included units on the ground floor and the front of the building.

”With the building soon to open, the council’s compliance team will continue to monitor its use.”

Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.