Slender is the night at new hotel site
The strong Sydney hotel market has prompted Melbourne developer Ninety Four Feet to lodge a development application for a 200-room hotel to be modelled on the international citizenM chain that is spreading through Britain, Europe and the US.
Dean Rzechta at the proposed Pitt Street hotel site. Picture: Kelly Barnes Source: News Corp Australia
The plans for the 410 Pitt Street, Haymarket site, which has a street frontage of just 6.5 metres and is presently used as a boarding house, show the developers propose a 33-level pencil-thin hotel of about 200 smallish rooms. The construction cost is put at $35.6 million, according to plans lodged with Sydney City Council.
Developer Dean Rzechta, managing director of Ninety Four Feet, yesterday said it was too early to appoint a hotel operator, but a few groups had expressed interest in managing the property, which is to be aimed at younger travellers.
“We want to get planning approvals first,” said Mr Rzechta, who is developing scores of residential properties in Melbourne.
Mr Rzechta reckons planning approval will be gained by the end of the year, envisaging the hotel will open in 2018.
Ninety Four Feet wants to model the hotel on the global citizenM chain, which is known for its affordable luxury properties including stylish living room-like lobbies, latest technologies, comfortable crisp beds and free WiFi and movies on demand.
The plan is to demolish the existing boarding house to build the kind of slim hotel tower that has become a feature of Melbourne’s skyline. The hotel, to be built in an area of the city known for its budget hotel and backpacker accommodation, will be branded either three or four stars and is the second hotel the Rzechta family is proposing in Sydney.
The group is also transforming a 1909 heritage-protected office block into a 16-level luxury hotel with US hospitality operator Starwood in tow. Starwood will introduce its 4.5-star Aloft brand to the property, which is being developed at 302 Pitt Street near the Greenland Group’s 67-level Bathurst Street tower.
Commercial and residential development of the 345sq m site was deemed unsuitable because of the small floor plates and inability to comply with key state planning regulations.
Typical hotel rooms could be as small as 15sq m, with premium rooms located towards the street and three staggered rooms to the rear, the plans show.
Meanwhile, CBRE Hotels directors Rob Cross and Andrew Jackson recently sold the Westend Hotel at 412 Pitt Street, adjoining the proposed Ninety Four Feet development site, to a local group for about $19m.
Source : Australian Business Review Lisa Allen 2nd June 2015
