Bryan Townley named as new Invercargill hotel manager

Thursday, 25 October 2018

Ascot Park Hotel manager Bryan Townley set to take on Management of the new ILT inner city hotel which will be operational in late 2021.

Invercargill hotelier and musician Bryan Townley has been announced as the manager of the upcoming Invercargill Licensing Trust's inner city hotel.

The appointment was announced was on Thursday at the trust board meeting, where chief executive Chris Ramsay said it was like putting their best jockey on the best horse.

The hotel, currently in the resource consent stage of the project, will be built on the corner of Dee and Don streets.

After the meeting, Townley said he saw each business he had worked for as a project, an opportunity to see what he could do with it.

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Artwork of the Invercargill Licensing Trust's proposed inner-city hotel.

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'It's all about starting up a brand new business from the ground up and getting the chance to put your stamp on it.'

Townley started managing hotel's for the ILT in 1994 at the Homestead and is the current manager of ILT's flagship hotel, The Ascot Park Hotel.

Before that he was the manager of the Kelvin Hotel.

'I just find they've been a fantastic community-based business to work for, I enjoy the lifestyle and the work.'

The appointment of a manager to a hotel that has not even been consented yet may seem strange but Townley said the move to the inner city project was an exciting opportunity and progression of his work.

'The exciting thing is I'm involved from the planning stage, I get to have input at the operational stage.'

Ramsay said he had received advice on how the hotel would operate from other ILT hoteliers, which was an important step in making sure the project was successful.

'When you've built something of this size, the next most important thing is to make sure you've got the right person running it.

'If we've got the right talent internally, why wouldn't we promote that?'

During the meeting on Thursday, Ramsay said engineers had been working out how to keep their crane, which would be at the site of the hotel build, at a low enough height to stay under the Invercargill Airport's safe approach zone.

This was noted as a concern during the initial submission process.

Hearing dates for the resource consent application have been set down for 28-30 November.

The ILT expects the project to be finished and operational by October 2021.