Crowne Plaza Doncaster Hill to open 2011 (Australia)
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Crowne Plaza Doncaster Hill to open 2011 (Australia)
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Category: Asia Pacific - Australia - Industry economy
- Hotel projects
This is a press release selected by our editorial committee and published online for free on 2009-02-02
IHG to manage first international hotel in one of Melbourne’s most exclusive inner suburbs
One of Melbourne’s most exclusive and progressive suburbs is set to welcome its first international hotel, with the signing of a management agreement between IHG and investors represented by Grace on Doncaster Group, to establish Crowne Plaza Doncaster Hill.
Scheduled for completion in 2011, the upscale hotel of approximately 150 rooms will be located at 682 Doncaster Road, Doncaster, approximately 15 minutes east of the Melbourne CBD. Doncaster is the heart of one of the city’s most affluent municipalities and adjacent to several business parks and commercial centres, the Melbourne campus of Deakin University, major retail – including the largest Westfield Complex in Australia – and Box Hill health industry enterprises and educational campuses.
The hotel’s facilities will include a ballroom and naturally lit meeting space, a fitness centre with an outdoor pool, and an all day dining restaurant and bar.
Grace on Doncaster Group represents a group of private local and overseas investors, for whom Crowne Plaza Doncaster Hill is the latest in a string of Melbourne property developments. The 682 Doncaster Road, Doncaster Hill development will be the group’s first upscale hotel project.
IHG will manage the new hotel under the international Crowne Plaza brand, joining a network of currently 15 Crowne Plaza hotels in Australia and over 330 worldwide, equating to nearly 91,000 guest rooms. There are more than 130 new hotels in the brand’s pipeline, including Crowne Plaza Adelaide, opening late 2009.
In Victoria, Crowne Plaza Doncaster Hill will join the recently opened Crowne Plaza Torquay on the surf coast, and Crowne Plaza Melbourne in the CBD.
“IHG has identified Melbourne as a primary city with opportunity for continued growth across all our brands. Doncaster is a particularly attractive location given the high number of business drivers in and around the suburb, the current lack of quality accommodation in the immediate area, and Manningham Council’s strategic framework to attract 4,000 new residents and five million extra visitors to the area each year,” said IHG director of development Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, Todd Wynne-Parry.
“The upscale Crowne Plaza brand presents a powerful proposition for this development, tying neatly with Doncaster’s reputation as one of the city’s most exclusive suburbs, and leveraging the brand’s particular strengths in attracting the corporate and meetings markets.”
Project Manager Ronald Di Pietro – whose family has held 682 Doncaster Road for more than 24 years – said the choice of IHG to manage the new hotel as a Crowne Plaza was a natural one.
“We approached a number of major hotel operators currently operating in Australia, with a view to leveraging their international brands, industry expertise, global distribution systems and sales and marketing resources. It was clear IHG stood out in all of these areas, and that Crowne Plaza is a powerful up-market brand with strong appeal to business travellers.”
“In addition to this, it was important to our investors that the hotel operator views the relationship as a joint partnership and an opportunity to grow and work together. This was apparent with IHG right from the outset,” Ronald said.
With the final development plans lodged with Manningham City Council, the development group expects final planning approval with a view to commencing construction by late 2009.
Manningham City Council Mayor, Councillor Charles Pick said the new hotel development will be a welcome addition to the Doncaster Hill 20 year vision of a mixed-use, sustainable urban village and a new civic precinct for the area.
“The news of the Crowne Plaza Doncaster Hill development is outstanding for Manningham and would provide significant local benefits.
“The new Crowne Plaza Doncaster Hill will secure a large number of local jobs in the hospitality industry. This is more than the announcement of a hotel, it’s an announcement for local employment and will inject economic activity into surrounding small businesses.”
Manningham Council Chief Executive, Lydia Wilson said the Crowne Plaza Doncaster Hill complex will provide a valuable contribution to the future of this important precinct of Doncaster Hill.
“Crowne Plaza Doncaster Hill’s residential, restaurant and function facilities will cater for future visitors to Manningham and also provide additional business impetus within Doncaster Hill.”
“The hotel complex together with the completion of the $650 million Westfield development, the commencement of planning for Council’s $28 million Civic Precinct and with many other planning permits approved shows continued business confidence in future of Doncaster Hill,” she said.
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