|
Government is delighted that landowner Pa Ariki and the people of Takitumu have finally accepted the offer from “their own son” Tim Tepaki to complete the job he says he can finish, says Prime Minister Dr Robert Woonton.
The prime minister was speaking at a celebration at Te Atukura on Friday to mark the latest phase in the Wellington-based property developer’s plans to redevelop the Vaimaanga hotel site and build a five star sister property on Aitutaki.
Tepaki, Pa Ariki and Investors Forum head Dan McEwan have signed a pre-lease agreement which paves the way for Tepaki to begin checking the site in preparation for construction to begin. Tepaki and has agreed to pay Pa Ariki one percent of the construction cost, which will pay for a new palace for the paramount chief.
The agreement basically gives his company 10 months to study the project and decide whether or not to go ahead, but Tepaki is confident construction work could actually begin as early as July.
The Investors Forum is a group of 200 investors who will each pay the cost of building a unit in the new hotel, to be known as the Royal Takitumu Hilton.
Tepaki plans to on-sell the Rarotonga property to the Hilton Group and is also building the Royal Captain Cook hotel on Aitutaki, which he will retain.
Dr Woonton said he was sure Tepaki could complete the project, even though a number of other developers had sought to take it on in the past and had failed.
And he says the fact that the project has got to this important stage is the achievement not only of the current government but also the work of earlier governments led by Sir Geoffrey Henry, Dr Maoate and Joe Williams.
The prime minister said it was a day every Cook Islander would be happy about because the abandoned Sheraton hotel, as it is commonly known, has been a burden to all Cook Islanders
Reinforcing Pa Ariki’s observation that the project would only work if all Cook Islanders supported it, Dr Woonton said, “We all have to want to support it. We all have to want the hotel and want the people who build it to be welcome in this country.”
Since the time when Dr Maoate had become Democratic Party prime minister, government had supported proposals to redevelop the site but Tepaki’s was the only one to have lasted the distance, he said.
However some people were still unsure whether a “Cook Islands son of Takitumu” could really finish the hotel, which was abandoned in the 1990s not long before it was scheduled to open.
“I have had the opportunity to met Tim Tepaki and his group in Wellington. These people are world class and developments they are involved in are world class – buildings of a standard we don’t have in this country,” Dr Woonton said.
“I thank Pa Ariki for allowing government to make decisions that will benefit not just her but the country as a whole.”
At one time a lawyer had advised Pa Ariki to accept a proposal from a Korean company to develop the hotel site, the prime minister revealed.
“I went against it and Pa Ariki understood why,” Dr Woonton said.
“I have more confidence in our own son Tim Tepaki than those who were pushing our government from Korea.”
While Tepaki had taken three years to make a decision about going ahead with the project, government had maintained a strong relationship with him, he added.
As a result of progress on the hotel project the airlines now servicing the Cook Islands would be more confident and would make sure the country was well served, especially now that there was the prospect of more competitive airfares between the Cook Islands and New Zealand.
Next month he would be meeting with Air New Zealand chief executive officer Ralph Norris and would see that promises made by the airline were kept, Dr Woonton said.
|
