Hotel moves to expand

Plans for a performing arts and conference centre in Nelson are about to be revived by the Nelson City Council, as Rutherford Hotel Holdings – the former partner in the council's plan – goes it alone with its own conference centre.

Rutherford Hotel Holdings spokesman Andrew Talley confirmed today that work was under way on plans for a new conference centre to extend off the existing hotel in the central city.

The hotel already offers conference facilities, and was seeking options for expanding that business when it went into the partnership arrangement with the council.

Mr Talley said last year when the council pulled the plug on the deal, following a public hearing, that the company might still go ahead and extend its conference capabilities. He said today that architectural plans were being drawn up and a feasibility study was being done with the aim of starting on foundations later this year.

Concepts drafted at the time of the joint venture proposal were being re-worked in order to meet new requirements, Mr Talley said.

He suggested last year that such a development would not be on the scale proposed to coincide with the now defunct plans for an adjoining performing arts centre.

Meanwhile, the city council is about to get under way with "plan B" for a proposed performing arts and conference centre it feels it has the mandate to pursue. The subject is included in its public agenda for next Thursday's full council meeting.

In December last year councillors voted 10 to three to ditch plans to buy land for a performing arts centre next to the Rutherford Hotel, and to urgently consider an alternative site.

The council's decision to quit the plan was based on a consensus view among the public that while it supported development of a centre, the site was not suitable.

The council spent between $300,000 and $350,000 to get a proposal ready for public consultation, which involved paying just over $4 million for the site where a $28m building was planned.

In response to a question over whether Nelson could handle two conference centres, Mayor Kerry Marshall said that all the council was doing at this point was following a promised pathway forward. However, it would have to consider the hotel company's plans to build a conference centre.

"My own comment is that we should be having discussions with Rutherford Holdings to see what they are doing," Mr Marshall said.

The council said in its draft annual plan that it was likely a new proposal would be ready for public consultation later this year.

Mr Marshall said the aim was to start with a "clean sheet" in the search for a potential site.

He said discussions held by the council last week in private about a potential land swap arrangement had nothing to do with a site for the proposed development.

Further discussions have been held recently over site options with members of the former Millennium Trust, who have helped drive the project over the last decade.

The council also aims to be more open with its decision-making processes during this next round. There was concern last year about the amount of information withheld.

An attempt by The Nelson Mail to seek the release of details through the Official Information Act was declined by the council on the grounds it reserved the right to "carry out negotiations or commercial activities without prejudice or disadvantage".

A further request to the Office of the Ombudsmen has been notified to the council's chief executive Keith Marshall, who has been asked to provide ombudsman David McGee with the relevant information at issue.

The office was limited in what it could say at this point because the matter was still being dealt with in confidence, assistant ombudsman Christopher Littlewood said today.

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