Rockhampton Plaza Hotel: New leasees to revive iconic accommodation venue and restaurant

The restaurant was once one of the most popular venues in town for wedding receptions and the like. Here’s what the new managers have planned for the space.

The former Rockhampton Plaza Hotel will be hive of activity in the coming months as new leasees breathe new life into the iconic venue.

Jhona Leonard, with her husband and son, have taken over the management of the seven-storey accommodation building and restaurant on Rockhampton’s highway strip.

The George Street property is being rebranded as 161 on George Hotel International.

The Leonard family has spent the past few months on days off renovating and repainting the rooms; updating them to be more modern.

There will be 22 rooms available on the fourth and fifth floors initially, while they work through renovating the rest of the rooms.

“We will also have short term accommodation with three monthly leases or less for people who are looking for a house … there’s a lot of people staying in their cars or staying in a motel paying $100 a day when here they pay $350 a week,” Ms Leonard said.

The original pool at the front of the property will also be getting refilled and fixed up.

The kitchen at the restaurant, which has been kept as a time capsule for the past 10 years, is undergoing a big clean up and will be upgraded with new fridges and ovens.

The 100-seat space will become an Australian Filipino restaurant, paying homage to Mrs Leonard’s place of birth.

“We will have Australian food like steaks and Filipino food like pork knuckle, pork belly and showcase our Filipino cuisine with the quality beef,” she said.

They had originally planned to be open in September but it has been hard to get contractors.

The tentative reopening date will now be mid-October, pending liquor licence approval.

HOTEL HISTORY AND COURT CASES

In 1993 the hotel sold for $1.9 million and then for $1.5 million in 1988, before it was sold to current owners, Chang Holdings in 1996 for $3 million.

It has been closed since 2014 and the building owner, James Chang, has had two cases at the Rockhampton Courthouse in the past couple of years.

Rockhampton Regional Council took Mr Chang to court after he accumulated an outstanding rates debt of $207,008.05 over four periods, plus legal and interest fees.

The court ordered Mr Chang in September 2021 to pay the costs.

Six months later, Mr Chang was back in court in May 2022 for 16 offences related to fire safety follow inspections at the hotel property by Queensland Fire and Emergency Services on four dates in 2021.

The charges allege Chang Holdings and Mr Hsu-Hui Chang, an executive officer of Chang Holdings, failed to take all reasonable steps to ensure Chang Holdings did not breach the Fire and Emergency Services Act 1990 by failing to maintain at all times a prescribed fire installation in the building to a standard of safety and reliability in the event of fire, namely fire doors, penetrations through fire resistant construction, fire extinguishers, fire hose reels, exit lighting and exit signage.

At his last court hearing on Friday (August 26), the matter was set down for a hearing in November.

Rockhampton Plaza Hotel. Photo: Chris Ison

Over the years, Mr Chang has spoken to this publication about his plans for the site and new management has been spruiked a few times but it has never come to fruition.

In 2019 he revealed plans for a $1.6 billion, 38-storey high rise building which would include apartments, a school, gym, hotel management college, five level shopping centre and rooftop restaurant and entertainment venue – but it has never gotten off the ground.

The hotel is regularly criticised on social media for being an eyesore as it was quite rundown and locals say it should be used to accommodate homeless people.