Developer Sirona Capital’s mooted $30 million, 73-room Quest apartment hotel in the west end of Fremantle is the latest in more than $100 million worth of short-stay accommodation projects being planned for the port city.
Developer Sirona Capital’s mooted $30 million, 73-room Quest apartment hotel in the west end of Fremantle is the latest in more than $100 million worth of short-stay accommodation projects being planned for the port city.
In total, there are 439 rooms in the planning pipeline for Fremantle across four developments that have been approved by relevant regulatory bodies.
Sirona announced last week that it would buy a development site at 8 Pakenham Street from Luke Saraceni’s Westbridge Property Group for $7.2 million, alongside a 15-year leasing deal with Quest to operate a proposed 4.5-star hotel.
The hotel is slated to be built by Diploma Group, which signed a binding heads of agreement with Sirona.
Diploma will work closely with Bollig Design Group to finalise a formal construction contract expected to be worth around $16 million.
Development approval for the hotel was granted near the end of March, with Sirona seeking to raise up to $10 million from investors.
Sirona said it had already raised $8.1 million for the project from core investors.
Quest is also planning to expand its Harbour Village apartment hotel in Fremantle, which is located near the Fishing Boat Harbour at 43 Mews Road.
The $10 million project was approved by the Western Australian Planning Commission midway through last year, and comprises the development of two four-storey additions to the existing dwellings on site, which would add 42 apartments.
Also planned for Fremantle is a $60 million DoubleTree by Hilton hotel, to be built at the corner of Point and Adelaide streets.
The metropolitan south-west development assessment panel approved the proposal in December last year for up to 173 hotel rooms, 77 apartments, as well as hospitality and retail premises.
The existing car park and shop and office buildings at 2 Point Street and 64-80 Adelaide Street will be demolished under the plan.
Building is set to begin later this year on the Campion Design Group-designed project, with Malaysia-based property investment firm SKS Group providing funding.
The Fremantle DoubleTree is scheduled to open in early 2017.
In close proximity to the planned DoubleTree is a seven-storey, 151-room hotel mooted for the old Spotlight building on Adelaide Street.
The Victoria-based property development arm of the Spotlight chain, Glenwaye Pty Ltd, has proposed the project.
The hotel has been designed by McDonald Jones Architects, but it is not yet clear when construction will start.
Fremantle Chamber of Commerce chief executive Tim Milsom told Business News there was an acute undersupply of hotel rooms in the Fremantle CBD, with annual visitors to the port city exceeding 2 million.
“I’d imagine that most of them don’t stay in Fremantle, because we’ve really only got The Esplanade and The Hougemont, which has just been built,” Mr Milsom said.
“There aren’t that many options in Fremantle, certainly in the town centre.
“Developers are just starting to say ‘this stacks up, this is going to be a really good return on investment, and let’s get it done’.
Mr Milsom did acknowledge, however, that some of the proposed developments appeared to have stalled, most notably the hotel planned for the old Spotlight site on Adelaide Street.
He said the chamber had recently been in discussion with the City of Fremantle regarding whether incentives were needed to ensure the projects went ahead.
“DoubleTree by Hilton could be that domino that actually gets some of these others across the line,’ Mr Milsom said.
“If we can tip that domino over, I think other people are going to start to have a really serious look at some of those properties and those development opportunities.
“It does take that brave person to go first.”
