Hotel boom coming to Spring Hill, Brisbane CBD

Only two years after lockdown decimated the state’s tourism industry, a mini hotel boom is coming to Spring Hill and the CBD. Here’s what to expect.

(Clockwise from top left) Render of the Wickham Tce hotel; the skinny hotel in Turbot St; Hilton's Garden Inn hotel.

Only two years after lockdown decimated the state’s tourism industry, a mini hotel boom is coming to Spring Hill and the CBD.

In the latest proposal, Brisbane developer Packhill has lodged plans for 92 short-term accommodation rooms in a 15-level tower at 309 Wickham Tce.

There would also be a cafe/bar, function rooms, gym, spa, pool and recreational areas scattered throughout the building.

Architects Rothelowman’s distinctive design featured arches and finishes that reflected the heritage of Wickham Terrace, including the neighbouring heritage-listed Athol Place, Craigston and Spring Hill Reservoir.

The site fronts Wickham Tce and Penton Lane and has a four-storey unit building on it.

Artist's imprssion of the new hotel.

Meanwhile, Contal Properties is pushing ahead with a revised design for one of Brisbane’s skinniest hotels on a Turbot St, CBD, site just 11m wide at one end.

A 12-storey hotel with 60 rooms would rise above the tiny 397 sqm site, the size of a standard house block, if approved.

It would have a 25m rooftop lap pool with barbecue area, garden and gym, plus a bar.

Construction also began late last year on the $50 million Hilton Garden Inn hotel in Spring Hill, expected to open in late 2024.

Hilton's Garden Inn project has started.

The Garden Inn model is Hilton’s mid-priced hotel range, which it has rolled out in recent years around the world.

The hotel would have 129 rooms, along with a full-service restaurant and bar, meeting rooms, a gym and a 24-hour convenience store.

Demand for rooms in Brisbane has bounced back and is now higher than before Covid, with Accor saying its city hotels were booked out during the NRL Magic Round earlier this year.

However another Spring Hill hotel, what would have been the city’s first Movenpick, was put on hold in September last year after developer Keylin revealed it had struggled to find builders, engineers and subcontractors.

It later also paused an adjacent unit tower, ORIA, despite strong pre-sales.

The revised design for the "slim'' CBD hotel proposal. Image: CPO Architects

Accor, which was to have operated the ridgetop site on Gregory Tce, was now looking for another site, with Keylin, within a 2km radius.

Packhill’s Spring Hill hotel is impact assessable, meaning it can be appealed in the courts by neighbours, because it was too high for the property size.

Council officers advised Packhill’s planners in a “prelodgement’’ meeting in January to lower the height, or try to buy adjacent land, however town planners Murray Bell Planning Co said that had not proved possible.

“The proposed building height is required to attract a premium hotel operators and deliver the exceptional built form, material finish and street activation outcomes achieved with the current design,’’ it said in the development application (DA) documents.

Council officers also raised other issues including insufficient landscaping and setbacks.

Plans for a Accor-operated Movenpick hotel in Spring Hill have ground to a halt.

Murray Bell said it was not possible to increase side setbacks due to minimum hotel room widths and it would plant “columnar trees’’ to visually shield it from Athol Place.

It said the proposal, submitted on July 24, reflected the potential for Wickham Tce and the surrounding area to evolve into a unique precinct, something it said been impaired by a lack a streetscape/parkland “activation and active uses’’.

“There is a pressing need to activate Wickham Tce and Wickham Park, create additional casual surveillance of public spaces and reinvest in quality architecture within the locality,’’ the DA said.

It also said the nearby, proposed Brisbane Live mega arena project would add to a buzz in the precinct in coming years.

More details on Council’s online DA portal developmenti. Search for the address or application A00632683