InterContinental Hotels Group plans to open three new hotels in Melbourne, Australia, according to a report from The Australian Financial Review.
IHG signed a long-term agreement with Singapore-based investor Hua Sin Tay to develop a dual-branded hotel on Bourke Street Mall. IHG will operate the 453-room property with a 272-room Holiday Inn and a 181-room Hotel Indigo. The entire property is scheduled to open in 2022.
"These hotels will market to two clearly distinct customer segments, so there will be no overlap," Abhijay Sandilya, senior director of development, IHG, told The Australian Financial Review.
The new hotels will be part of The Walk Arcade redevelopment project. Hua Sin Tay, the mall's owner, submitted plans for approval to redevelop The Walk Arcade. The investor acquired the mall, which runs from Bourke Street Mall to Little Collins Street, in 1993 for $18 million. Focus Ventures, a Richwood Investments subsidiary, is leading these projects.
The dual-branded property will be near IHG's new Holiday Inn Express slated to open on Little Collins Street in 2020. The Holiday Inn Express Melbourne Little Collins, which was signed with Pro-invest in May 2017, will have 299 guestrooms.
The third new hotel—a 150-room Holiday Inn—is slated to open in the northern suburbs of Coburg in 2020. The hotel designed by Melbourne-based architectural firm Hachem will be part of a development by Barnes Capital. IHG already has four hotels operating in Melbourne.
IHG’s portfolio in Australia includes 26 operating hotels under its InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands. The group recently added the Holiday Inn Express Brisbane in April 2017. Additional IHG hotels lined up for the region include properties signed with Pro-invest in Adelaide, Newcastle, Melbourne, Southbank and Queenstown, which will operate under the Holiday Inn Express brand. These are scheduled to open within the next three years.