InterContinental Hotel

A five-star InterContinental anchors One Queen Street, the mixed-use tower that completed the Commercial Bay precinct at the foot of Queen Street. It was Precinct Properties' first hotel.

Then COVID hit and the tourism market stalled. Precinct scaled the hotel back from 244 rooms to 139, giving the tower more office space while leaving room to add hotel floors when demand returned.

Precinct had brought RCP in early to advise, before the design was fixed, and that groundwork was what let the project change course so quickly when the market turned. RCP went on to manage the fit-out to InterContinental's five-star standards, working between Precinct as owner and IHG as operator, whose sign-off was needed at each design stage. To stay ahead of the detail, RCP had a full mock-up of a standard room built early, so problems were found and fixed once rather than repeated across every floor.

The finished hotel runs 139 rooms, from standard kings to a top-floor Presidential Suite, with a gym, a club lounge and the Advieh restaurant open to the public below. Its timber, wooden floors and brass carry the brand, and local iwi artwork through the rooms and common areas gives each floor its own character.

The InterContinental opened on the downtown waterfront, the anchor Precinct had planned for One Queen Street, reworked to fit the market it opened into.