A new DoubleTree by Hilton hotel may be coming to New Zealand.
Planned for construction at Karaka's national horse sales centre, the $30 million hotel would be developed with a management agreement between Hilton and New Zealand Bloodstock.
The hotel would be 30 minutes south of Auckland central in the small rural area of Karaka.
The Karaka sales centre hosts four big week-long sales every year, attracting buyers from all over the world.
The popularity of the event and the number of visitors coming into Karaka for the sales created demand for a hotel like this, said Andrew Seabrook, NZ Bloodstock managing director.
"Our international clients, globe-trotting tourists and local travellers alike will be able to take full advantage of our existing facilities including a variety of conference and event spaces, and world-renown thoroughbred auctions," Seabrook said.
"In January alone, we book out 400 rooms in the city, so we thought it would be great to have all our guests stay here on site. We turn over more than $100m in a week during January alone. So we thought the potential to grow the venue as a conference, wedding and function centre was massive. Independent research we had done suggested a hotel would be the best use and the proximity to the airport is an added bonus. We see it as being the best hotel between Hamilton and the Auckland CBD," Seabrook said.
Construction is expected to start by the end of this year, and the 120-room hotel is targeting completion by 2020.
Hilton currently operates DoubleTree by Hilton hotels in Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown, making the Karaka property the fourth in New Zealand.
