Luxury wellness spa, hotel for Geelong heritage landmark

Gurner Montgomery have revealed plans to transform the Osborne House precinct to a boutique hotel, wellness spa and conferencing centre in an agreement with Geelong’s council.

Luxury property developer Gurner’s wellness brand could be coming to Geelong under a proposal to redevelop the historic Osborne House precinct.

The Gurner and Montgomery Property consortium, which was named the preferred developer to reinstate and reimagine the heritage listed 1857 bayside mansion at North Geelong, has presented its masterplan to create a boutique hotel, wellness spa and conferencing centre.

Under the proposal, the consortium would sign a 50-year peppercorn lease agreement with the council for the Swinburne St property, which would remain in public ownership.

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The redevelopment would see the mansion reimagined as a luxury boutique hotel with 10 heritage hotel suites and 40 luxury eco stays, a waterfront restaurant, a lounge bar and conference and events centre, including space for a huge marquee overlooking the water.

The historic stables would be converted health and wellness zone.

Gurner operates private wellness centres under the Saint Haven brand at other developments in Collingwood, South Yarra and Toorak and coming soon to North Sydney.

The eco villas would be established on the precinct grounds also, according to the project vision presented to the Geelong council.

The plans include turning the historic stables into a wellness spa.

Gurner and Montgomery will work with architects Lovell Chen, Cera Stribley and landscape architects TCL on the project.

The developers will need to obtain a planning permit and approval from Heritage Victoria before the project could proceed.

The vision for the proposal takes inspiration from other Gurner projects in Toorak, Prahran and Collingwood, an the luxury Saint Moritz development at St Kilda.

Geelong councillor Eddy Kontelj, who was among the councillors who originally pushed for a private-public partnership to redevelop the precinct, said the future of Osborne House had been up in the air for 30 years.

Geelong councillor Anthony Aitken said the redevelopment would be something the city would be proud of and re-establishes community usage of the facility, with up to six public spaces available in the vision.

Geelong’s council has committed $8m toward the heritage restoration of the landmark mansion.

“I want to commend the Gurner Montgomery Consortium for their vision, which is a sympathetic redevelopment and financially sustainable proposal for this icon of Geelong,” he said.

“Importantly, it introduces the Saint Haven brand into Geelong with a high-end health and wellness centre in what is going to be a beautifully restored stables area.”

The council has endorsed contributing $8m towards the heritage restoration of the mansion under a conservation management plan and authorising chief executive officer Ali Wastie to execute the suite of contracts with the Gurner Montgomery partnership.

A vision and masterplan for the redevelopment of the historic Osborne House precinct by Gurner and Montgomery Property was presented to Geelong’s council in August.

Osborne House was initially a private home, but served as a country house for the Governor of Victoria, an officer training college, military hospital and First World War submarine base for the Royal Australian Navy and Second World War army training centre. It served as offices for the former Shire of Corio until amalgamation in 1993.

It became a community asset after amalgamation, including as a maritime museum that was ultimately shut down when it emerged the building was riddled with black mould.

The project is the second in Geelong involving a partnership between Gurner and Montgomery Property.

Gurner also recently revealed a partnership with Costa Property Group for a mixed use development of Geelong’s Cunningham Pier that could feature a 100-room hotel and 200 apartments.