Gisborne District Council’s Hotel Obsession
Updated: 3 days ago
There is an old hotel-industry adage:
“The first owner loses money. The second owner breaks even. And the third owner makes money.”
Gisborne appears to have been testing this theory for about 30 years.
It began in the late 1990s when Gisborne District Council bought the former Heinz Wattie site.
Council had big ambitions for the waterfront, and hotel and a conference centre featured among the development ideas being discussed.
Council later referred to “a decade of Council commissioned specialist reports” supporting development thinking around the city.
The Wattie site was supposed to help transform Gisborne.
Council bought the land, became involved in its redevelopment and agreed to take the risk demolishing and clearing the former industrial buildings.
What did the land cost?
What did demolition, remediation and site preparation cost ratepayers?
What concessions were provided?
What was ultimately recovered?
Decades later, the complete public ledger remains surprisingly murky.
The grand vision meets Gisborne
Instead of simply producing the full-service hotel, restaurant and conference destination originally contemplated, the former Wattie site evolved into something rather different.
In 2004, we got Portside, with its mixture of short-stay accommodation and individually owned apartments.
We got Marina View Apartments, which subsequently developed serious weather-tightness and other defects.
Remediation was initially estimated at more than $16 million, with local owners facing substantial financial exposure.
And we got big-box retail.
That last one deserves a moment.
Having helped redevelop a major site into something that included large-format retail outside the traditional shopping core, we have subsequently spent years trying to work out how to get people back into the inner city.
Sometimes economic development really does take the scenic route.
Then came Emerald Hotel
If the Wattie redevelopment didn’t completely satisfy the council’s appetite for hotels and conference centres, there was always another opportunity.
In 2006, we got Emerald.
This time the council managed to facilitate the integrated hotel and conference facility it long desired.
Councils traditionally struggle with supply and demand economics in the private sector and unfortunately, Emerald Hotels Gisborne Ltd was placed into liquidation by the High Court in July 2010, with many local creditors invited to submit claims.
The building survived.
Various owners followed.
And that old hotel-industry wisdom about the third owner eventually making the money?
Emerald, after numerous changes of ownership, seems determined to test just how many owners the saying allows.
And now we have come full circle
In September 2026, Trust Tairāwhiti announced it had secured the Emerald Hotel and neighbouring properties, including Victoria Plaza, as part of another attempt to revitalise Gisborne's city centre.
The Trust's explanation was wonderfully appropriate. It had decided to
"step in where the private market had not delivered."
And there, in one sentence, is nearly 30 years of Gisborne development history.
Gisborne's public and community institutions are once again putting accumulated community wealth, Council-owned commercial assets and public expenditure behind the commercial development of the city.
The pattern has become strangely familiar.
Winners are chosen and developers develop.
Companies fail and walk away.
Contractors and other creditors lose money.
Buildings change hands.
Apartment owners discover substantial repair bills and returns that don't always resemble the original expectations.
Big-box retail helps pull commercial activity away from the traditional city centre.
Then public and community institutions step in to revitalise the city centre.
And eventually, we buy a hotel.
It would be funny if Gisborne hadn't been here before.
The Portside development formed part of the redevelopment of the former Wattie's site.
Then came the Emerald, another chapter in the council’s long-running enthusiasm for hotels, conference facilities and the enduring belief that economic growth could be summoned into existence with the right development proposal.
Perhaps the Chamber Had a Point
In 2018, the Gisborne Chamber of Commerce had offered some remarkably simple advice to Council:
"Get back to basics."
Spend on roads, wastewater, flood protection and essential infrastructure.
Be prudent with debt.
Demand transparency.
And expect proper commercial returns from community-owned assets.
Eight years later, that advice now looks remarkably like foreshadowing.
Separate Organisations, Shared Direction
Trust Tairāwhiti is not Gisborne District Council.
Gisborne Holdings Limited that helped complete the monopoly board with the purchase of the Bate's Building is a separate, 100 percent Council-owned company.
Those distinctions matter.
But so do the connections.
Council owns Gisborne Holdings. Council appoints Trust Tairāwhiti's trustees. All three organisations are involved in the wider city-centre revitalisation strategy.
History suggests Gisborne should at least ask to see the numbers before celebrating the artist's impressions.
What was paid?
What is it worth?
What will redevelopment cost?
What return is expected?
And how much more community capital could be required if the private market continues stubbornly refusing to deliver the vision?
Perhaps Gisborne doesn't have an obsession with hotels and conference centres.
Perhaps we're simply playing the world's longest game of Monopoly.
Developers have come and gone.
Properties have changed hands.
Community institutions are now back around the board buying the pieces.
The only unanswered question is who has been the banker.
