A new luxury hotel for Hobart courtesy of Marriott and Shwartz family

And so Hobart, which is now Australia’s third-best performing CBD hotel market behind Sydney and Melbourne, will have its first luxury hotel in more than a decade following a deal between Marriott International and Melbourne's Schwartz family.

Mariott has teamed up with the Trawalla Group, the investment firm led by power couple Carol and Alan Schwartz. Ms Schwartz is the daughter of retail and property magnate Marc Besen. She is also a director at Stockland.

The plan is to open a 128-room hotel at Parliament Square operated under Marriott's five-star The Luxury Collection brand.

It will be Hobart’s first five-star luxury hotel since the Henry James Art hotel opened in 2004.

Due to open in 2018, it will be operated by Mariott under an agreement with Trawalla.

The new hotel will be part of a $150 million redevelopment of Parliament Square in Hobart’s CBD, a project of Trawalla in conjunction with Sydney-based private developer, Citta Property Group, led by former Lendlease property CEO Stephen McMillan.

It will see 15,000 square metres of office space plus retail and a public space added to the area. It will all sit against a backdrop of heritage buildings, including the Georgian-style St Mary's Hospital originally constructed in 1847.

The new hotel will have all the original period features.

It will also incorporate local artworks and have its own whisky bar to promote Tasmania's growing whiskey industry.

"It has always been our intention to partner with a brand that appreciates and embraces Tasmania's natural beauty, history and heritage, which is why we chose to work with Marriott International to bring The Luxury Collection to Tasmania as part of this exciting new development." Mr Schwartz told the Australian Financial Review.

The new hotel is all part of Marriott’s plans to have 50 hotels in the region by 2020.

Marriott, which is now part of the biggest hotel company following last year’s merger with Starwood operates 23 hotels in Australia and the Pacific with a further 20 under development.

by Leon Gettler, March 2^nd 2017