Developer resubmits Wyndham Garden Suites proposal, splits ‘cliff-face’ tower in two

After being told to go back to the drawing board by council, the developer of a controversial Brisbane hotel has unveiled new plans and promises it will be delivered on-time.

A DEVELOPER has overhauled plans for a controversial hotel in inner Brisbane after community outcry.

Plans for the 13-storey Wyndham Garden Suites in Spring Hill were last month panned by Brisbane City Council as “excessively bulky” and “overly ambitious.”

Local opposition was fierce, with over 50 submissions made to council over its setbacks and overshadowing of character buildings.

Wyndham Garden Suites will make its Australian debut in Spring Hill and is scheduled to open its doors in 2021

Builder appointed for Neville Bonner Bridge linking South Bank and Queen’s Wharf

Residents described the 75-metre-long building as a “cliff-face” and feared its potential approval would lead to an avalanche of similar approvals in the historic suburb.

New plans by Image Developments sent to The Courier-Mail show the building, located on Hartley St, would be split in two towers on a single podium.

Preliminary renders of the revised Wyndham Garden Suites. Picture: Image Developments

Image’s president Rupert Yang said the new plans, to be submitted to Brisbane City Council in two weeks, would be set back by 9-metres from heritage listed homes to the north.

“We have broken a very long building into two towers above the podium,” Mr Yang said. “We used to have 45 sqm rooms — they are a lot smaller now.”

To compensate, the western tower would be one level higher than the previous 13 storeys.

Mr Wang said he hoped the new design would be fully compliant but would wait for council to reassess the plans.

“We are still aiming to construct in the middle of next year and complete in 2021,” he said.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, which tout themselves as “the world’s largest hotel franchisor”, said last week that the Spring Hill tower would be the first Garden Suites opened in Australia.

An artist's impression of the original Wyndham Garden Suites proposal. Picture: PD Online.

The new plans follow strong opposition from local residents and the Spring Hill Community Group, who feared the building’s possible approval would trigger a wave of similar developments.

Local resident Michael McPartland, who has lived in Spring Hill for 31 years, described the original plans as a “cliff face”.

“If that goes ahead, how on Earth are we going to protect the rest of the place?”

The Spring Hill Community Group said overdevelopment in the suburb would make heritage houses feel “like living in the middle of a volcano.”