IHG continues the expansion of the Holiday Inn brand in Australia with the signing of Holiday Inn & Suites Melbourne Ringwood. It follows the signing of a management agreement with Ninety Four Feet, an Australasian property development, investment, and construction company, and their partners Omni Property Group and Hamilton Marino Builders.
Opening in 2020, the 164-room hotel will offer all day dining and bar, conference and meeting facilities, a gym and a swimming pool, along with on-site parking. It sits as part of a mixed-use development that will feature 82 residential units.
Ringwood is a growing city on the fringe of the Eastlink motorway, just 23km east of Melbourne’s CBD, with a population of more than 16,000 people and more than 9,000 operating businesses. It’s home to Cadbury’s second-largest factory in Australia, but perhaps most famous for the development of the “Pride of Ringwood” hop variety in 1958, which today flavours Foster’s Lager, Victoria Bitter and many other beers around the world. However, despite its size and commercial clout, there is currently limited quality hotel stock in this area.
The signing of Holiday Inn & Suites Melbourne Ringwood complements the growing pipeline of Holiday Inn branded hotels in Victoria, which include Melbourne Bourke Street Mall, Coburg, Dandenong, Werribee and Geelong, along with existing properties Holiday Melbourne on Flinders and Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport.
Abhijay Sandilya, IHG’s Senior Director of Development – Australasia, said: “Wherever you are in the world, there’s a good chance you’ll find a Holiday Inn nearby, delivering an affordable, enjoyable hotel experience where guests are always welcomed warmly. We are so excited to bring that same joy of travel to Ringwood, continuing the momentum in Victoria’s big cities and micro markets. I’m also very pleased to expand our great partnership with Ninety Four Feet.”
Holiday Inn & Suites Melbourne Ringwood is Ninety Four Feet’s second IHG hotel, after it signed an agreement in July to open Hotel Indigo Auckland in 2021.
Dean Rzechta, Managing Director at Ninety Four Feet Property Development said: “We are thrilled to sign our second hotel with IHG, and our first hotel in Australia. Ringwood is an exciting destination, with a vibrant community and growing business investment that has included a $66 million upgrade to Ringwood Train Station and a $665 million expansion of Eastland Shopping Centre. We are confident that, with the world’s largest brand family behind it, Holiday Inn & Suites Ringwood will be a huge success.”
IHG currently has 48 hotels operating under four brands in Australasia, including: InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, with another 22 in the pipeline, including Hotel Indigo, EVEN Hotels and vocoTM.
