Auckland-based lawyer, Gerald Sharrock, wants to build a boutique art hotel on Birkenhead's landslide site.
Last year a slip on the North Shore suburb destroyed a 120-park Auckland Council-owned carpark. Since the incident, nearby businesses have been struggling to attract customers.
The plan proposed by Gerald Sharrock includes building a 220-room hotel to cover the remnants of the Rawene Reserve carpark and digging a further five metres into the hole created by the slip. It also includes a ninth-floor viewing platform and public art gallery, free of charge to the public.
"The hotel would bring more than 300 people a night through Birkenhead who otherwise would not come here, and they would inevitably spend money in the village," Sharrock said.
While he admits there is some risk involved in building on the slip, Sharrock commissioned engineering’s reports which prove the project can be done.
Before the slip, Sharrock already had plans to build a hotel in the area. However, the landslide provided an opportunity for the project to push forward and utilise a bad situation.
