Coming soon: First new Sunshine Coast hotel in 30 years

Investment and development company Pro-Invest has broken a 30-year hotel development drought on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast with plans to develop a major hotel operated by Britain’s InterContinental Hotels Group.

Pro-Invest has purchased a Maroochydore site, lodging a development application for a 167-room hotel under its long-running master development agreement with IHG to develop and operate the Holiday Inn Express brand in Australia and New Zealand under franchise.

It will be the company’s second hotel development in Queensland after opening the Holiday Inn Express Brisbane Central in 2017. Another three IHG-managed hotels will open in the next year, with a further five in 2020 and 2021.

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In Maroochydore, the nine-storey Holiday Inn Express & Suites is expected to feature a swimming pool, bar and dining venue, conference and function facilities, and ground-level retail.

Pro-Invest negotiated the site’s acquisition with Sunshine Coast Council and Economic Development Queensland.

Pro-Invest chief executive Ronald Barrott says it will be one of the region’s most significant tourism infrastructure projects in decades.

“While there have been some hotel developments proposed for the Sunshine Coast in recent years, they are still a long way from being realised,” Barrott says.

“In contrast, Pro-Invest has the unique advantage in the Australian hotel landscape of being able to deliver projects from inception to opening.”

Barrott says investment for the Sunshine Coast hotel will come from Pro-Invest’s Australian Hospitality Opportunity Fund II, with Pro-Invest responsible for the construction, launch and management.

“This has enabled us to be agile and deliver hotels in relatively short time-spans. We are confident that with the support of the Queensland government and Sunshine Coast Council we will be able to expedite the development to have the hotel open to coincide with the official launch of the new Sunshine Coast Airport runway at the end of 2020.”

The federal government’s latest National Visitor Survey reveals record tourist numbers for the Sunshine Coast, with domestic visitor expenditure growing 22.7 per cent and visitor numbers up 15% in the year to March.

This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.