Melbourne Airport hotel gets go-ahead

The $250 million mixed-use precinct within two minutes’ walk from Terminal 4 and an eight-minute walk from Terminals 1, 2 and 3 will also include a café, pub, bar and restaurant, conference rooms and flexible working areas, childcare facilities for the airport’s 20,000-strong workforce and civic spaces integrating public art.

The first new hotel since 2002, when the airport processed 15 million passengers a year – the figure is now 36.7 million – is part of a much-needed effort by its institutional owners to meet the demand for facilities that will only grow as it airport heads towards an expected 60 million passengers by 2033.

“This development will turn an underutilised, accessible and high-quality urban site into a space that will bring economic and social benefit to the region through increased hotel accommodation, fantastic new recreational areas and employment opportunities,” said Melbourne Airport chief of property Linc Horton.

The Hive is just one development planned by the airport, which with a 2500-hectare footprint has the ability to become the country’s largest business park.

The airport already has a 415-hectare business park, of which 160 hectares is still vacant, and a planned seven-hectare entertainment precinct that will include a surf park and a further 6.4 hectares – where a Mercedes-Benz service centre sits – with scope for development into high-end service facilities or research precinct.

‘We’re not asking them to take a leap of faith’
Redevelopment of the 2.3-hectare site could result in one large or even three smaller office buildings to provide the 6500 square metres needed by the airport’s Border Force and Agriculture Department tenants and an extra 3500 square metres that it wanted to offer to potential clients who could come from the state and federal governments, Mr Horton said.

“It will show some very high-quality office buildings that can have very large floor plates or very small floor plates depending on what the driver is,” he said.

The unlisted Australia Pacific Airports Corporation, which owns both Melbourne and Launceston Airports, focused on longer-term returns and was able to build the necessary office facilities before locking in tenants to take them, rather than depending on a precommitment to make the development happen, he said.

“It’s about creating additional space for other tenants,” he said. “We’re not asking them to take a leap of faith.”

AccorHotels will operate the hotel.

“We are excited to be working with Melbourne Airport on this development and thrilled to be embarking on another dual-branded hotel complex,” Accor’s Pacific chief operating officer Simon McGrath said.