The Chateau Tongariro closed in February 2023. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Ruapehu's mayor says he will fight till the end to retain the Chateau Tongariro Hotel after it was revealed it could possibly be decommissioned.
The Chateau was forced to close in February last year after a seismic assessment deemed it "very high risk" with an E-grade earthquake rating.
An Official Information Act request by the New Zealand Herald revealed the Department of Conservation is scrapping plans of expression of interest for parties to operate it.
One option given to DoC from Conservation Minister Tama Potaka was to decommission the 95-year-old neo-Georgian building.
The Herald is reporting decommissioning would cost $1.27 million to board up windows and doors and to shut down systems.
RNZ has also requested that OIA information.
The building is 95 years old. Photo: Sharon Brettkelly/The Detail
Mayor Weston Kirton said a decommissioning of the hotel would be a massive blow to the community.
"We know that it's 30 percent of our hotel bed nights for the district.
"It's at the high end of accommodation, attracts a lot of people, it brings a lot of employment to town, certainly in the region about $10 million in salaries for example, but there's all the add ons as well."
Kirton is also appalled he was not involved in any talks about scrapping expressions of interest, and should have been because it is a choice that will have massive consequences on livelihoods.
"We're talking something like $30 million to our community here, so I just think it's a situation that's sad.
"We haven't or local iwi, for example, to my knowledge, haven't been party to any of the decision-making and it's been done behind closed doors. In fact it's a situation that probably we need to rectify."
Kirton said a permanent closure will be another huge blow for the community and he knows there are buyers out there who are interested in restoring the Chateau to its original state.