Gold Coast’s Imperial Square Project
Developer Robert Badalotti has moved to the first stage of his $2 billion Imperial Square project in Southport which includes a “funky” hotel.
At 108 levels, Imperial Square will have the Southern Hemisphere’s tallest building.
The plan is to build a super-tower sitting on a six-level podium featuring 50,000 square metres of floor space for a university or college, libraries, eateries, and a shopping centre
Towers of 48 and 68 storeys will flank the landmark building.
Stage one will see the development of a 210-room hotel.
It’s been described as a millennial, Gen Y-style property.
The hotel will be housed in an 18-level building and will include a rooftop bar and outdoor cinema with a 35 person lift providing access to it.
Construction work on the hotel is set to begin in the next three months.
What makes it funky and gen y focused is what’s underneath the hotel - a 378-room student accommodation quarter and a 2500 square metre hospitality campus that will be integrated with the hotel.
According to James Vallis, chief operating officer for Mr Badalotti’s Azzura Investments, the hotel has been designed to have wide appeal to visitors.
The hotel will be built with modular construction and it could take less than a year to build.
He said it could also serve later stages of the Imperial Square project.
Mark Durran, JLL’s Australian head of hotels and hospitality, sees it as a world-class vertically-integrated education and accommodation complex.
And there are potential buyers, both domestic and international buyers, he said, already expressing interest in a turnkey deal.
They will pay for it when it is built — on all, or parts, of the stage.
Already China’s Harvest Education Technical College has agreed to a lease of the hospitality campus space.
“Already we are finding potential buyers like the mixed-use make-up,” Mr Durran told the Gold Coast Bulletin.
“It means they can have a diversified income stream and flexibility if they want to sell parts of the property.”
Leon Getler 15th May 2018.
