Hotels heat up as new Melbourne Airport hotel looms

A new $250m development at Melbourne Airport, including a hotel and ­office suites, has won government approval. Picture: Jason Edwards
A new $250m development at Melbourne Airport, including a hotel and ­office suites, has won government approval. Picture: Jason Edwards

Tasmania’s hotel market is in full swing with Hobart’s MACq1 Hotel selling for about $50 million this week to a syndicate of investors, while in Melbourne developers are poised to build a significant hotel at the airport.

JLL Hotels executive vice-president Peter Harper sags MACq1 is the fifth Tasmanian sale for his agency this year, with another major Tasmanian hotel asset also under contract.

A syndicate of local investors, including the Farrell family-owned Federal Group, who currently manage the 114-room MACq1 hotel, as well as Knight Frank Tasmania chief executive Scott Newton, the local Tasmanian Rockefeller family and investment banker Greg Woolley, make up the investment group that bought the luxury waterfront hotel.

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Harper says the property, which hit the market last year, attracted significant offshore and domestic interest but he declined to comment on the purchase price.

The vendor was the hotel’s builder, construction and engineering company the Vos Group.

“There is no doubt investors are increasingly recognising the outstanding fundamentals of the (hotel) market and its growth potential,” Harper says.

Further north, a new $250 million privately funded development at Melbourne Airport, including a large dual-branded hotel and office suites ranging from 1000sqm to 10,000sqm, has won government approval.

The proposed 464-room hotel will be branded an Ibis Styles and Novotel Hotel under the French-owned Accor group.

This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.