Global hotel operators being converted to Brisbane
INTERNATIONAL hotel operators are flocking to Brisbane and entering the central business district where office vacancies are driving conversions to accommodation or apartment use.
London-listed Kuwait-backed Action Group is one of several eyeing state government office towers set to be vacated under a strategy to consolidate public servants in a new tower.
Action Group’s Australian director, Andrew Nehme, said the company preferred to develop its own buildings, but it was a chance to expand its Brisbane holdings.
“It’s all about opportunities,” Mr Nehme told The Australian.
“It all comes back down to cost. In Brisbane, (the government offices) are here, they’re empty. Why build a new one. It’s all relative with costs, we wouldn’t normally do it, but they’re here.”
It is understood Hong Kong’s biggest hotel operators are liaising with authorities to expand into Brisbane.
The Far East Consortium, which runs the Dorsett Hotel chain, is in a joint-venture bid with Hong Kong’s Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and casino operator Echo Entertainment for the multi-billion-dollar Queen’s Wharf casino resort.
But company representatives have also travelled to Brisbane to discuss a stand-alone hotel there.
Yesterday, the joint venture of Shayher Group and Pau Jar Group announced a partnership with Starwood Hotels to develop a W-branded hotel on the former site of the Supreme and District Court on George Street, and two other high rises.
Colliers analysts said there was an influx of Chinese developers looking to convert or redevelop office space — at 14.7 per cent vacancy — for other uses.
Colliers director of capital markets and investment services, Tom Phipps, said “targets” for hotel conversions included TFE Hotels, which planned to convert 171 George Street, and the redesign of Bilbergia’s 111+222 from office to potential hotel use.
There has been strong growth in Brisbane’s hotel sector over the past two years.
The Gambaro Hotel, Four Points by Sheraton and Alpha Mosaic developments recently opened and the Next Hotel and Resorts, TRYP Hotel and Capri by Frasers are being built.
Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said fresh stock provided more opportunities to promote the city.
“We’ve seen 550 new rooms come online this year alone and we’re going to see more rooms come online post-G20,” he said.
Action Hotels is in an expansion phase. It is in talks for sites in Melbourne and Brisbane, as well as investigating land in Mackay, Gladstone and Fremantle for new accommodation sites.
Source: The Australian - 4 September 2014
