Intercontinental’s new Sydney hotel
The InterContinental Hotel Group is expanding into Sydney’s Chinatown with plans to open a new Holiday Inn in the area.
The 17 storey site, owned by China’s Linzhu Group, is valued at around $61 million.
The plan is to develop it with a sloping roof and "green waterfalls".
The scheduled opening is slotted in for 2020.
It won’t just be a hotel. It’s all part of a mixed-use development that will include a 1000-square-metre private art gallery and a retail concourse.
Holiday Inns are strategically placed in busy locations and they are in the mid-price range.
The Intercontinental Group’s chief operating officer Karin Sheppard there was strong demand for the Holiday Inn from people looking for quality accommodation at affordable rates.
The opening of the Holiday Inn coincides with a number of developments opening. These include the soon-to-open Sydney Sofitel at Darling Harbour, the new Hyatt Regency, formerly the Four Points Sheraton, the Ribbon site, the planned Ritz-Carlton at The Star, Pyrmont and the new hotel and integrated casino complex at Barangaroo.
"The long-range forecasts all say the new beds coming into the market will be absorbed," Ms Sheppard told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"The opening of the International Convention Centre has created new demand for the sector."
There are already six Holiday Inn hotels in Sydney and Ms Sheppard described the Holiday Inn brand as the "story of success for IHG in Australia".
"The first Holiday Inn globally opened its doors in 1952 and today the Holiday Inn brand family is the largest hotel brand in the world, with the largest development pipeline," she said.
"We are also undertaking a series of hotel refurbishments across the portfolio to keep all our brands up-to-date for the modern traveller.”
Jing Wen Lin, director at Linzhu, described the prospective hotel as a "jewel in the Sydney CBD landscape with its unique wedge-shaped design and green flowing rooftops".
by Leon Gettler, March 9th 2017
