Four-star Brisbane hotel transformed into $36m mental health hospital
A four-star Brisbane hotel and Queensland Heritage listed residence has been repurposed into a $36 million facility to set a new benchmark in private mental health care.
Southeast
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A 63-bed private mental health hospital has opened its doors in Brisbane, following the conversion, demolition and replacement of a four-star hotel. 
Avive Health has opened a new 63-bed private hospital facility in Brisbane, intended to set a new benchmark in private mental health care.
The $36 million facility occupies a prime site at 16 Bryden Street, Windsor, neighbouring one of the city’s major health hubs, home to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Karuna Hospice Services and Herston Quarter health precinct.
Avive Clinic Brisbane features 63 single bedrooms, seven group therapy rooms, 10 consulting suites, a dedicated fitness studio, rooftop deck and patient lounge areas.
It provides inpatient treatment, day patient programs and outpatient consultations for people living with depression, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, substance use disorders, developmental and adult trauma, as well as emergency and first responders.
Construction works included conversion of the existing Ramada Hotel; demolition and replacement of the existing two-storey hotel buildings with a new three-storey building, as well as refurbishment
works to the remaining hotel buildings and minor refurbishment of the heritage building.
Avive Clinic Brisbane represents a $36m investment into the sector and is one of the company’s first in a pipeline of private mental health hospitals developed under a uniquely different business model, where all aspects of the treatment journey are clinician-led from facility design to program offerings.
Avive Health Co-founder and Co-CEO Greg Procter said Avive Health was focused on delivering better patient experiences and outcomes.
“Avive Clinic Brisbane, along with each of our hospitals into the future will offer sophisticated inpatient treatment and therapy, complemented by day programs, outpatient specialist suites and home-based virtual support,” Mr Procter said.
“We’re focused on delivering evidenced-based services throughout a person’s entire mental health and wellness journey.”
Co-founder and Co-CEO, Mark Sweeney added that Avive Clinic Brisbane is unlike anything seen before.
“Our Avive facilities embrace salutogenic design principles, which is a research-backed approach focused on creating environments to support health and wellbeing rather than simply treating illness,” Mr Sweeney said.
“Our hospitals are designed specifically for mental health; by recognising the connection between a person’s health and their physical surroundings we’ve created environments that actively support recovery along every step of a patient’s hospital treatment journey.”
“This includes interior design to support the emotional and spiritual states of patients, as well as integrating indoors and out through nature, landscaping and natural light.
“We have also invested heavily into a range of building technologies and management systems such as circadian rhythm lighting, true presence sensors, electronic patient tablets, security and access control technology – all designed to improve the patient experience and ultimately, outcomes specific to what each of our patients need.”
Avive Health partnered Kingdom Projects for construction; HSPC Health Architects for design and Barwon Investment Partners as property partner.
Tom Patrick, Head of Healthcare Property at Barwon Investment Partners, said this new private hospital will cater to the evolving needs of parties and healthcare providers
“The facility represents a transformative milestone in healthcare infrastructure, intertwining innovation and patient-centred design to truly reflect a value-based healthcare model,” Mr Patrick said.
Avive Clinic Brisbane has retained its Queensland Heritage-listed ‘Skilmorlie’ residence and adjoins the State Heritage ‘Rosemount Hospital’, established as a military hospital during World War I, the only such facility surviving in Queensland and one of the few from this period in Australia.
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