UK giant leases Harry Seidler’s only hotel for lux brand
ISPT has committed IHG Hotels and Resorts to the only guesthouse completed by revered architect Harry Seidler.
The c1986 25 level, 321 room guesthouse will reopen as InterContinental Brisbane in June.
It forms part of a development, 150 Elizabeth Street, with retail, dining, entertainment and hospitality, incorporating the Regent Theatre, the Wintergarden Shopping Centre and the former HMV at 155 Queen St.
A 42 level office is also planned as part of the project.
The announcement comes two weeks since we reported Blackstone and Investa were in negotiations to trade a 75 per cent stake in Grosvenor Place, with a 44 storey, 84,000 square metre office designed by Mr Seidler, completed in 1987.
In May, 2021, meanwhile, the architect’s first commercial project, penned in 1954 as Horwitz House, in the city’s Haymarket, sold for $23.3m.
Mr Seidler died in 2006 after a stroke the year earlier.
Including residential and civic appointments, he designed over 180 projects.
InterContinental replaces Hilton in Elizabeth Street
ISPT has been renovating the Elizabeth St hotel for more than a year; it last traded as Hilton Brisbane.
The asset also contains four restaurants and bars, conference and event facilities.
“The Brisbane hotel market, and South East Queensland region, is entering a golden era fueled by transformative infrastructure projects, a booming tourism sector and the countdown to the 2032 Olympics,” IGH development director Australasia, Cameron Burke, said.
“With record investment and a surge in both corporate and leisure demand, the region is fast becoming Australia’s most dynamic hospitality hotspot,” he added.
IHG ups portfolio of luxury local inns
InterContinental Brisbane will be IHG’s third in Brisbane – the others are on Hayman Island, in the Whitsundays, and in the Sanctuary Cove Resort.
In Australasia, it operates 21 luxury hotels with five more in the works, including for brands Kimpton, Vignette Collection and Hotel Indigo.
Incorporating its lower-end marks, amongst them, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn– it operates another 48 here with 26 in the pipeline.
IHG is headquartered in Windsor, 35 kilometres west of London.
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