Singapore's Next Story Group snaps up new Southbank hotel for $45m
The new hotel is wedged between two high-rise towers. Photo: Supplied

Singapore's Next Story Group snaps up new Southbank hotel for $45m

Singaporean hospitality company Next Story Group has paid about $45 million for a newly built hotel in Melbourne’s Southbank that will be the launching pad for a new hotel brand.

The 162-room property at 167 City Road, jointly developed by prominent Melbourne developers Andrew Nehme and Dean Giannarelli, will become Next Story’s first LinQ Hotel, an upper mid-scale hotel, when it opens in September.

It will be Next’s (previously called Silverneedle Hospitality) third hotel in Melbourne, alongside a 120-room Sage Hotel at Eastland Shopping Centre in Ringwood and a NEXT Hotel due to open in QIC’s 80 Collins mixed-use development in the CBD (recently bought by Dexus in a $1.5 billion deal) next year.

“We like Melbourne and believe it offers a stable operating environment,” Darren Edmonstone, CEO of Next Hotels & Resorts, told The Australian Financial Review.

Mr Edmonstone said the LinQ hotel would give Next three core brands in Melbourne alongside its more upmarket 4.5-star Sage and five-star NEXT Hotels.

Next operates 26 hotels in Australia alongside two in Bangkok and one in Laos. It recently announced plans to open hotels in Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

Mr Edmonstone said Next was looking at other potential deals in Australia, with Sydney being a “missing spot” in its portfolio.

As with many hotel groups, Next primarily focuses on operating hotels through management agreements and leases.

But Mr Edmonstone said the group would also consider “strategic acquisitions” like the one in Southbank where value was enhanced through the deployment of capital.

The new hotel at 167 City Road, on the edge of the Melbourne CBD, is undergoing a complete fit-out and will open in September.

Mr Edmonstone said LinQ was a brand targeting the more budget-conscious corporate traveller – rooms will range in size from 15 to 22 square metres – and was not one loaded with amenities.

“There will be a F&B offering on the ground floor, but there won’t be a gym or a swimming pool,” he said.

The 16-storey hotel was built on a 606 square metre site at 167 City Road wedged between two high-rise towers.

Mr Nehme and Mr Giannarelli (through their joint venture company The 167 City Road) paid $4.6 million for the site in April 2014. They previously had a soft agreement to offer the hotel to Accor as an Ibis Styles hotel, if they decided to retain the site as investment.

The design and construction of the 16-storey hotel was undertaken by Maxcon.

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