Mona hotel without name after ‘Motown’ lawsuit threat
The proposed Mona hotel is again without a name after the museum was threatened with a lawsuit.
Tasmania
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THE proposed Mona hotel is without a name after the holders of the Motown trademark threatened the museum with a lawsuit should it proceed with its working title.
The $400 million five-star hotel had already dumped the moniker “Homo” — its original name — after owner and straight man David Walsh expressed fears of causing offence to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities.
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In an update on the Mona Hotel website, Mr Walsh has written that the subsequent working name — Motown — has been scrapped too.
“We have been threatened with a lawsuit by the holders of the ‘Motown’ trademark,” he wrote.
“It seems that hotels are on their radar — or at least ours is. They think that if we usurped their name, we would tarnish it.
“They’re probably right.
“So our name will change again. To what? What should we call the mooted hotel-that-used-to-be-known-as-Motown? Or the hotel-that-used-to-be-known-as-Homo?”
The Glenorchy City Council has asked Mona for more information on the proposed hotel before its development application is publicly advertised.
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According to its website, the hotel would have 172 rooms, a theatre, spa centre, outdoor concert stage and library, as well as conference and auditorium facilities.
But the centrepiece would be a library spread over three levels featuring Mr Walsh’s “large and growing nerd fest of bibliophilic paraphernalia”. Several new artworks would feature.
The hotel has been designed to resemble “a shopping trolley that looks a bit like an inverted suspension bridge”, Mr Walsh wrote.
It is expected to be built by 2024.
The owners have asked the Tasmanian government to act as guarantor on the costs.
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