Boutique hotel being planned for Allbell Chambers

Another central Dunedin hotel in a heritage building could become a reality as a local company makes plans for what it describes as a "high tech, boutique" development in lower Stuart St.

Flat Iron Investments Ltd plans to redevelop the Allbell Chambers building near the Octagon.

The 24-room hotel would be on the first and second floors of the category two heritage building.

It is part of a wave of hotel development in Dunedin, including the Distinction Hotel in the former Chief Post Office, the Chamberson Hotel on the corner of lower Stuart and Cumberland Sts, and a 27-room hotel planned for Filleul St.

That is occurring as annual tourism expenditure in New Zealand has increased by $11.9billion, or 44%, in the past five years.

Tourism is the country's biggest export industry, contributing 21% of foreign exchange earnings.

Flat Iron directors Lauchlan Chisholm and Gregory Paterson did not respond to phone calls from the Otago Daily Times yesterday

However, information on the proposal was included in a consent application made to the Dunedin City Council.

The company has applied for consent for a hotel "based on the current trend in short-term commercial accommodation development".

There would be no reception area. Guests would prepay online, and access their room with a previously provided PIN.

There would be 11 rooms on the first floor and 13 on the second, and a "guest lounge-come-library" would be provided.

The hotel would be accessed from a revamped lobby off Stuart St.

The building would get a new lift and stairwell, and a new roof.

The 1909-10 building is in the central activity area under the district plan, and is within the lower Stuart St heritage precinct.

A hotel is a permitted activity under the plan.

Few external alterations to the building's Stuart St facade were proposed.

The ground floor entrance would include a cupola, awning and cornice that reflected the original design.

There was no car-parking space in the building, but four parks would be required under the proposed second generation district plan.

The applicants did intend to provide some parking for guests.

There were two options, a long-term lease of up to eight car parks within the council's Moray Pl car park, or for shareholders in the company to make available land they owned in the central business district.

Council resource consents manager Alan Worthington said if planners assessed the effects of the work as no more than minor, the consent would be non-notified, as the Chamberson Hotel had been.

"These guys are doing the same sort of thing, where they're repurposing a building.''