Hunter Street mall developer Iris has locked in a deal with Event Hospitality to establish a luxury boutique hotel in the former David Jones building.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Iris will announce today that the new hotel, to be known as QT Newcastle, will retain the property's historic exterior and include 106 rooms.
Event also runs a QT-branded hotel out of the former Gowings building in central Sydney and similar retro-styled QT establishments in Perth, Melbourne, Canberra, Bondi, Gold Coast, Falls Creek, Queenstown and Wellington.
Event's website says its portfolio includes 54 hotels, 142 cinemas, 8000 employees and $1 billion in annual revenue. Its hotel brands include the Rydges chain.
The Newcastle hotel, on the corner of Hunter and Perkins streets, will include a rooftop bar.
Event Hospitality chief executive officer Jane Hastings said the hotel would be at the heart of the city's revitalisation.
"Newcastle is Australia's largest regional centre, and with the $700 million Iris investment, combined with the $650 million NSW government investment, the city is being revitalised, and QT will be at the heart of this project," Ms Hastings said.
Colliers International director of hotel valuations Christopher Milou, who helped broker the deal, said QT Newcastle would be unlike other Newcastle hotels.
"Currently, there is no true luxury boutique hotel operating in the Newcastle market that captures the essence of the area, its history and its growing cosmopolitan feel, and we believe that the characteristics of the heritage building and QT's experience will fill this void," he said.
QT hotels are also in the pipeline for Adelaide, Parramatta and Auckland.
The Newcastle Herald reported last month that the race was on to open Newcastle's first five-star hotel, though it is unclear if the QT will be classed as five-star.
The city's other luxury hotel project is Crystalbrook Collection's plan for a 130-room, five-star establishment, to be known as the Kingsley, in the City Administration Centre "roundhouse" in King Street.
Syrian billionaire Ghassan Aboud's Australian hotel chain has lodged a development application for the landmark building which includes two extra floors for a restaurant, pool and plant equipment.
Crystalbrook plans to start work on remodelling and fitting out the CAC when City of Newcastle staff move out in October, though the Herald reported last month that doubts had emerged over whether council planners will approve the new six-metre glass addition to the building.
Elsewhere in the CBD, Doma Group has started work on its 140-room Little National Hotel at Honeysuckle, and the 170-room Holiday Inn Express opened in Newcastle West last month.
Great Northern Hotel owner Bass Elhashem also hopes to open an 88-room boutique hotel in the art deco building's upper floors after its downstairs bars reopened last year.
Read more
- Iris Capital CEO Sam Arnaout and Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes turn first sod
- The changing face of Hunter Street | PHOTOS
- Hunter Street mall redevelopment
- Residential apartments in stage one of the East End redevelopment
- Remembering Hunter's history, shops, arcades and malls | photos
- Buyer pays $6m for mall apartment
- Council debates end to Hunter Street pedestrian mall