Up-market hotels take luxury living to a high-rise level

Taking advantage of the trend, Accor has launched its high-end Mondrian Residence apartments on the Gold Coast offering owners in the building access to the adjoining international five-star Mondrian Gold Coast hotel.

Speaking on the Gold Coast before an Accor leaders summit, executives Jean-Jacques Morin, Duncan O’Rourke and Adrian Williams, overseeing the Pacific region, said branded residences are gaining traction and more are being ear-marked across Australia.

Williams said developers and buyers recognise the lifestyle and investment benefits of the branded residence concept, which are now benchmarks for the hotel sector. Developers can add a premium to the price of their apartments, knowing buyers will pay more for a home in a tower named after a well-known, up-market brand.

The $400 million Gold Coast development covers 4037 square metres of prime beachfront land at Burleigh Heads at the southern end of the Gold Coast. The complex consists of two towers, one housing a 208-room hotel which opened in early June, and the other a complex of 89 luxury residential apartments which are all sold.

It was developed by the Brisbane-based Vitale Projects.

Carpe Diem

The private fund run by former Goldman Sachs banker Simon Wheatley, Carpe Diem, recently acquired a 42-room co-living property in Elizabeth Bay in Sydney’s inner-east for $7.98 million and a 62-bed property in Jindabyne in southern NSW, adding to its extensive portfolio.

Wheatley, who founded the fund about four years ago and has more than $100 million under management, has teamed up with RedHill Hospitality Management to manage its exposure to regional hotels and motels.

The fund also offloaded the Boulevard Motor Inn in Mildura for $7.7 million.

Portfolio boost

ASX-listed Centuria has raised $116 million from the sale of its office tower in the bustling South Eveleigh precinct in Sydney’s inner suburbs, offloading it to James Marshall’s Marprop Real Estate Investors and Gresham Partners.

The city-fringe office will be added to Marprop’s portfolio which includes the Sofitel Wentworth Sydney hotel, which the group bought in 2022 for $315 million, and an office at 300 Flinders Street in Melbourne which it acquired the same year for $80.8 million.

Centuria bought the A-grade office building at 13 Garden Street, South Eveleigh, in 2016 for about $104 million, along with two other assets, the BioMed Building at 1 Central Avenue and the Belltower at 6 Cornwallis Avenue, as part of the unlisted Centuria ATP Fund.

The A-grade office building is 250 metres from both the newly opened Waterloo Metro station and Redfern’s Southern Concourse, the latter providing direct connections to six of eight Sydney commuter rail lines.

Cushman Wakefield’s Steven Kearney, Jack Harrison and Kenny Duncanson and Knight Frank’s Jonathan Vaughan managed the sale.

Special place

The Martin Place Integrated Station/Metro development by Macquarie Group has won the Urban Taskforce Australia’s 2025 Development of the Year award.

About 400 property heavyweights gathered at Doltone House in the CBD to hear comedian Vince Sorrenti roast the award’s 43 entry candidates.

The One Sydney Harbour project at Barangaroo took out the High Rise city development gong.

Lendlease was the design and construction contractor for Sydney Metro Martin Place Station which included the new station, the associated retail spaces and the building above. John Holland CPB Ghella undertook the initial excavation and delivery of the twin tunnels. The architectural work was led by Grimshaw Architects.

It joins recent past winners, including the Ribbon by Pinelake, Darling Harbour 2024; Eighty Eight by JQZ at St Leonards in 2023 and Quay Quarter by AMP Capital at Circular Quay in 2022.