Grocon wins approval for $700m Darling Harbour hotel
Private development and construction group Grocon has won planning approval for a $700 million hotel to be built on the site of the IMAX cinema at Darling Harbour, clearing the way for a sale to Chinese investor Zhengtang.
The imminent deal will mark a record for the top end of the Sydney hotel market and lock in a key component of the precinct’s revamp, with only minor changes being required to the design of the building, which takes the form of a twisted ribbon.
The sale would put the project on track to be finished in 2019. It will include a five-star hotel, serviced apartments and a revamped IMAX cinema.
The hotel will be run as a W Hotel, with the 402-room property to mark the brand’s return to Sydney.
Zhengtang will raise capital from China to finance The Ribbon Hotel and Residences and it is also supporting another Grocon project in Sydney’s suburbs.
But the Darling Harbour complex will be the centrepiece of their relationship, with the hotel positioned to capitalise on the redevelopment of the International Convention and Exhibition Centres Sydney and the building of the Barangaroo precinct.
Other players are also investing heavily. Hotel owner Jerry Schwartz is working on his yet-to-be-completed International Convention Centre Hotel in Darling Harbour and nearby commercial landlords are upgrading.
Mirvac Group has lodged plans for an overhaul of the ageing Harbourside Shopping Centre, which will see a full redevelopment and a new tower atop the centre.
Property heavyweights GPT, Brookfield and AMP Capital have also earmarked a key stretch of the area for a major transformation. The trio, who co-own Darling Park and Cockle Bay Wharf, want to redevelop the waterfront strip into a fresh precinct anchored by a $1 billion tower.
Grocon’s hotel and serviced residences were marketed by Dean Dransfield of consultants Dransfield Hotels and Resorts and Craig Collins and Simon Storry of JLL.
Foreign investors are setting the pace throughout Australia.
The Townsville tower known as the Sugar Shaker has been sold to a Singapore’s Grand Hotels International for about $14 million.
It houses the Holiday Inn on Flinders St and was sold by federal agency Indigenous Business Australia, and is set to become the new Hotel Grand Chancellor Townsville.
Dransfield and Neil Scanlan of Colliers International advised on the deal.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
