“What did you eat for breakfast?” was Auckland-based developer Nigel McKenna’s in-character response to the question of how many millions it cost him to buy the land his new hotel sits on.
The Quadrant hotel on prime Waterloo Quadrant land near the High Court in Auckland officially opened this week, although guests have been staying there for the past two weeks. After successfully evading the monetary question, Mr McKenna said it cost $50 million to build the 23-level and 250-suite hotel that has a $100 million completion value.
It will be part of a group of hotels operated and managed by Quadrant Hotel Group, a subsidiary of his company Melview Developments. The second Quadrant hotel will be built in Queenstown as part of Melview Development’s Kawarau Falls Station.
The Quadrant Hotel Group is Mr McKenna’s first foray into the world of hotel management. He said there were few hotel chains that operated four-star brands that would fit will with The Quadrant’s model of service. Mr McKenna is passionate about hotels and said he wanted to provide a service where what was promised was provided.
“It’s a logical expansion within the business. We went from residential to apartments, apartments to serviced apartments, serviced apartments to hotels, to managing hotels,” he said. “It’s a very comfortable fit within the portfolio.”
The Quadrant is a strata-title development that has about 50 owner-occupied apartments, as well as hotel suits. It has been designed to appeal to business travellers. Since developing the Sebel Hotel in the late 1990s Mr McKenna has opened a number of serviced apartments and hotel buildings.
The Holiday Inn in Wellington opens later this year and the five-star hotel at his Viaduct Harbour Lighter Quay development opens next year. Mr McKenna confirmed an international hotel chain would operate the five-star Lighter Quay hotel, about which there has been a lot of speculation.
“Construction’s going well. We have appointed an operator and we hope to be in a position to announce who it is shortly.”
Mr McKenna is known to be media-shy, and had an army of hotel management staff and public relations professionals on hand for his interview with NBR. His business interests are valued at $100 million on the Rich List last year.
As for building the Quadrant Hotel Group’s empire, Mr McKenna told the reporter who had her breakfast for lunch, that the company was planning more than two hotels under the Quadrant brand. “How many covers of the NBR do you want to sell? There’s certain things you don’t know.”
