Holiday Inn & Suites Geelong for sale with $70m price hopes

Holiday Inn and Suites Geelong, has been listed for sale.

Geelong’s biggest four-and-a-half star hotel is on the market as developer Paul Franze seeks to free up capital for future projects.

The Geelong Holiday Inn & Suites is part of the $200m Franze-developed Geelong Quarter project completed in 2023.

The 180-room hotel, which is managed by IHG Hotels & Resorts and opened last September, is expected to sell for about $70m.

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The 14-storey hotel’s rooms include 23 suites, with other features including a signature open lobby, all-day dining options, meeting spaces, a heated 24-hour indoor pool and fully equipped gymnasium.

Celebrity chef Adrian Richardson’s steak restaurant Maestro is the hotel’s first floor.

Geelong Quarter was Franze Developments’ largest project, Mr Franze revealed.

“We’re pretty happy in what we’ve achieved and what we’ve contributed to the skyline and what we’ve offered to the community,” he said.

Chef Adrian Richardson, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and developer Paul Franze at the opening of Geelong Quarter. Picture: Brad Fleet

The sale was about freeing up cash so the company can move to its next projects, Mr Franze said.

“We’re a development company and opportunities are presented themselves at the moment both in Melbourne and in Geelong,” he said.

“I see this as an opportune time to sell the hotel in order to capitalise on the new opportunities being presented to Franze Developments.

The first guests stayed at Holiday Inn & Suites Geelong last September. Picture: Mark Wilson

“The opportunity to access a newly built hotel with no capital expenditure required in the short to medium term, run by a world-leading hotel group, is extremely rare,” Mr Franze said.

A ground floor retail space beneath the neighbouring Ryrie Home building has also been listed for sale in a separate campaign.

The property at 40 Ryrie St, Geelong, is on the fringe of the city’s arts and cultural precinct, opposite the Geelong Arts Centre and near the Little Malop St foodie precinct and GMHBA Stadium.

Holiday Inn and Suites Geelong open lobby meeting spaces and lounge.

Nick MacFie and Peter Harper of JLL Hotels & Hospitality and Nick Lower and Benson Zhou of Savills, have been appointed to market the hotel via an expression of interest closing on May 30.

Mr MacFie, JLL’s Hotel and Hospitality Group vice president, said the hotel was a market leader in the region Geelong.

“Its exceptional build quality and strategic positioning make it a highly desirable asset for investors looking to capitalise on Geelong’s growing prominence as a go-to destination,” he said

Holiday Inn and Suites Geelong king suite.

Regional centres like Geelong continue to demonstrate resilience, outperforming CBD markets reliant on corporate and international tourism, he said.

“The ongoing restrictions on international travel have redirected focus towards domestic holidays, bolstering drive leisure tourism and enhancing opportunities within regional markets.”

Heightened hotel sales activity in the past few years, particularly in regional assets, underscores investors’ confidence in the sector’s long-term prospects, said Mr Lower, Savills’ hotels state director.

Holiday Inn & Suites Geelong 24-hour heated swimming pool.

“Notably, expectations of distressed selling at the outset of the pandemic have not materialised, reflecting stability and optimism within the market.”

Tourism Research Australia data shows a 12 per cent surge in total domestic visitor nights for Geelong and the Bellarine compared to pre-Covid levels, reaching 4.7 million nights.

This was accompanied by a 33 per cent increase in total expenditure, amounting to $1.7B.

“With a major hospital, university, evolving calendar of major events and gateway to the Great Ocean Road, it’s hard to see the future being anything but extremely positive for the area,” Mr Lower said.