Crowne Plaza returns to Adelaide in city's tallest tower
British hotel giant InterContinental Hotels Group will bring its upscale Crowne Plaza hotel brand back to Adelaide after striking a deal with local developer Kyren Group to operate a new 326-room hotel in the city’s tallest building from 2020.
The hotel will form part of Kyren Group’s 134-metre high Frome Central Tower One on Frome Street in the Adelaide central business district. The $150 million development is currently under construction.
It will mark a relatively speedy return for the Crowne Plaza brand to the South Australian capital after the previous 308-room Crowne Plaza hotel at Hindmarsh Square was taken over by AccorHotels in October last year and rebranded as a five-star Pullman.
“We are very excited to bring Crowne Plaza back to Adelaide, after a brief hiatus,” said Abhijay Sandilya, senior director of development, Australasia, at IHG.
“As the city comes alive around us with the Fringe Festival, it demonstrates the need for a contemporary, upscale hotel that embraces both business and leisure travel, with a focus on events. We are confident that Crowne Plaza Adelaide will capitalise on strong corporate, conference and leisure demand.”
The new IHG hotel will be the latest iteration of the Crowne Plaza brand globally and will include about 600 square metres of meeting and conference space as well as an infinity pool, bar, restaurant, gym and parking facilities.
An interesting feature of the new hotel will be the lobby on the 10th floor rather than traditionally being on the ground floor. Below the hotel will be ground-floor retail and 83 residential apartments.
Guests will enter the hotel through a porte-cochère at the street level and then take a lift up to the reception area, which will offer panoramic views.
Vibrant destination
Theo Samaras, managing director of Kyren Group, said Adelaide was a vibrant city and one of the more stable Australian hotel markets, with just over 4 million visitor hotel nights per year and growing.
Adelaide now ranks ahead of Brisbane as the country’s fourth best performing capital city market behind Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, according to the latest STR figures, and is proving a popular destination for new hotels.
Rob Williamson from Savills Adelaide negotiated the hotel deal on behalf of Kyren Group.
Last year a new Holiday Inn Express opened in the Adelaide CBD, while a new $50 million Atura hotel operated by ASX-listed Event Hospitality & Entertainment is due to open in late 2018 at Adelaide Airport.
Also in the pipeline is the city’s first Langham five-star hotel, to be developed at the beachside suburb of Glenelg while a new Aloft Hotel will be operated by Marriott International.
