Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern officially opens the 96-room social enterprise hotel, Hotel Give
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and YMCA chief executive Josie Ogden Schroeder
Prime Minister
re-opens YMCA's
Hotel Give
On Thursday, 5 August, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern re-opened the YMCA Hotel Give, Stage 1 of a major development of YMCA’s Ōtautahi Christchurch city centre site. Hotel Give is New Zealand’s first socially sustainable hotel where all profits are reinvested into YMCA programmes and services to support better outcomes for young people and vulnerable members of the community.
The Prime Minister said that Hotel Give is “a facility that will be able to help sustain some of the amazing work that the YMCA does. A true social enterprise that is providing beautiful spaces and flexibility, I absolutely believe there is a need here and it will be in hot demand. People feel like doing good with their money; making choices that give back to communities, whether it’s a community they are visiting or a community that they are connected to – that’s exactly what this space will do.”
Architectus worked with the YMCA on the interior design, FF&E selections, and the fixed joinery systems for Hotel Give, creating a diverse range of accommodation spaces with refined, natural material detailing.
Stage 2, a new dedicated building for YMCA’s community-based activities, also designed by Architectus, is in the final stage of design. The new building will house a black-box theatre, health and wellbeing spaces, education facilities for young people, dance and movement studios, and a range of support tenants including general medical practice and physiotherapy. In partnership with Matapopore Trust, a multi-layered and intricate cultural design strategy has been developed to guide the integration of cultural values and narratives into the heart of the development, helping to nurture and shape youth into confident, grounded people with a strong sense of identity.
Our YMCA team attended the opening celebration and we look forward to Stage 2 being on site later this year.