Accor expands into Melbourne
Accor Hotels has added 347 rooms to the Melbourne market by opening the $150 million Novotel Melbourne South Wharf hotel.
The new hotel is located next to to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
A 347-room, 27-storey four-star hotel, is owned by Action Hotels Group, a London-listed investment company founded and chaired by Sheikh Mubarak Al-Sabah, heir to the Kuwaiti throne.
The latest Novetel has golden panels on its exterior.
It was designed by Woods Bagot and NH Architecture.
The Novotel Melbourne South Wharf is the fourth collaboration between Accor Hotels and Action Hotels in Australia.
Woods Bagot principal Andy Gentry Melbourne’s new supply of hotel accommodation in Melbourne will meet tourism demand.
“The number of international visitors to Melbourne continues to grow,” Gentry told The Urban Developer.
“The best hotels are all about the finer details and it’s great to be working with world class operators to provide a supreme guest experience.”
All this coincides with plans to expand the adjacent Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre with the aim to increase its revenue 70 per cent.
When it is complete, the $200 million expansion will make the MCEC the largest convention and exhibition space in Australia, with an increased total size of over 70,000 square metres.
NH Architecture director Hamish Lyon said the expanded Exhibition and Convention Centre would appeal to a new generation of guests.
“The design seeks to celebrate and connect people with the precinct and Melbourne in general,” Lyon told The Urban Developer.
“The building is conceived as two laminated wafers: a golden, city-orientated, east blade and a glazed west facing blade, reflecting Port Philip Bay’s dark waters. The tower aspires to be a slender, elegant and singular addition to Melbourne’s growing skyline.”
The latest Novotel is added to the new hotels now setting up in Melbourne including brands such as the Ritz Carlton, Mandarin Hotel and W Hotel which is part of the mixed-use development Collins Arch designed by Woods Bagot with NYC-based SHoP Architects.
Leon Getler 9th April 2018.
