Gold Coast development: $50m Gold Coast Airport hotel under construction

WORK has started on the $500 million redevelopment of the Gold Coast Airport precinct, including a $50 million hotel and rooftop bar. Here’s when you’ll be able to sip cocktails overlooking the beach.

WORK has started on the $500 million redevelopment of the Gold Coast Airport precinct.

The first sod was turned yesterday on the Coolangatta airport’s new $50 million Rydges Hotel. A second crane will rise over the terminal building later this year.

Queensland Airports chief executive Chris Mills said the hotel would open in mid-2020.

The pool at the hotel.

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“We are looking at about 15 months of activity so by the middle of next year you will be able to sit in the rooftop bar and look at the beach and Hinterland and say ‘how good is this?’” he said.

“A hotel is a critical part of the infrastructure for any airport and it is going to be really positive as the terminal expansion kicks off later this year.

“In a few months there are going to be two cranes over the airport — one on the hotel and one on the terminal.”

Gold Coast Airport Chief Executive Officer Chris Mills, developer John Robinson, Federal MP for McPherson Karen Andrews, Rydges Hotels and Resorts General Manager Gold Coast Stephen Oakley and Queensland Tourism Industry Development Minister Kate Jones at the turning of the first sod of the new Rydges Hotel at Gold Coast Airport.

The seven-storey, 192-room hotel will built on the southern side of the airport complex. A plaza will connect it to the terminal.

It will be topped with a rooftop bar overlooking Kirra beach, as well as a restaurant, resort-style swimming pool and function, conference and meeting facilities.

The Federal Government approved the redevelopment of the airport in September last year.

The terminal will be expanded to the south and become a three-level structure with provision for aerobridges.

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Artist impression of the new Gold Coast Airport $50 m Rydges hotel now under construction, the first hotel at the site

Mr Mills said the investment in expanding the facilities would provide a major economic boost.

“This (hotel) is a $50 million project and we are preparing for the expansion so there is half-a-billion dollars of investment going into this precinct in the next few years,” he said.

“The Gold Coast is going from strength to strength and we are very confident about the future.”

The expansion of the airport is expected to deliver an economic impact of $426 million in Gross Regional Product, according to data released last year, as well as an increase in tourism expenditure of $62 million a year.