Wellington waterfront Hilton back on

A five-star Hilton Hotel looks increasingly certain to be built on the capital's waterfront.

Wellington Waterfront chief executive Ian Pike said the project had been on hold until after a Wellington City Council vote on a district plan change.

The council voted to accept Variation 11 on Wednesday night, in effect clearing the way for three new buildings to go up on the city's shoreline at Kumutoto Wharf.

The luxury hotel chain has been in negotiations with the council about building on so-called site 10, where the all-clear has been given for a 30-metre-high building.

Mr Pike said the Hilton chain was likely to wait out the 30-day appeal period, but now had a "greater degree of certainty than they have ever had before" that its plan to build in Wellington could go ahead.

He did not expect appeals against the council vote.

"We have consulted over this space more than any other space in the entire Wellington region."

Waterfront Watch spokeswoman Pauline Swann said the group was considering appealing but conceded it might not. "It costs a lot of money and we've done it three times."

The hotel had proposed building a 140-room hotel, but Mr Pike said what the building would look like had not yet been determined.

Site 10 is a 3000-square-metre block of land at the end of Whitmore St and to the north of the Meridian building. It is about twice the size of the site on the Outer T of Queens Wharf, which had originally been earmarked for a $45 million Hilton hotel, before the Environment Court overturned consent.

Hilton spokeswoman Charlotte Seymour has said earlier that the search was on for a central Wellington site, including along the waterfront, and there was a specific site in mind.

Negotiations were well advanced and an official announcement would be made before the end of the year.

- © Fairfax NZ News