IHG has signed a management agreement with entrepreneur Martyn Barnes to open his new Yarra Valley property in Victoria, Australia as a Voco hotel.
The 170-room, new-build Voco Yarra Valley is slated to open in 2021. The building, which will have six stories on one end and one story on the other, will share the property with 20 cabins.
The Voco will be at the entrance to the Yarra Valley on Maroondah Highway. The hotel is close to transportation, including the train station Lilydale and the Coldstream and Lilydale airports. The property also is near Melbourne’s central business district and several attractions, including wineries, walking trails at Dandenong Ranges National Park, the TarraWarra Museum of Art, the animal attraction Healesville Sanctuary and the Mount Buller ski resort.
The hotel will be the second Voco to open in Australia. The first will be the former 388-room Watermark Hotel & Spa Gold Coast in Surfer Paradise. It joined IHG's portfolio in June and will be rebranded as a Voco in October. IHG plans to have 200 Vocos within the next 10 years.
“The signing of Voco Yarra Valley continues IHG’s ambition to take our brands into regional markets, including suburban micro-markets close to Australian capital cities,” Abhijay Sandilya, senior director of development–Australasia for IHG, said in a statement.
Voco Yarra Valley will also be the latest hotel developed under IHG's partnership with Martyn Barnes. The partners will open the Holiday Inn Melbourne Coburg in 2020 and plan to open more properties.
IHG currently has 48 hotels operating under the InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands in Australasia. An additional 22 hotel projects are in the pipeline, including Voco, Hotel Indigo and Even properties.