The City of Newcastle will soon welcome its first five-star hotel to King Street.
Council CEO Jeremy Bath has inked a deal this morning, selling the 'Roundhouse' City Administration Centre to hospitality and hotel group, Crystalbrook Collection.
The sale price has not been revealed.
Crystalbrook are planning to transform the Brutalist-design building into the 'Kingsley' - a luxury, 136 room hotel complete with a swimming pool, rooftop restaurant, lobby bar and cafe with an outdoor terrace.
Novocastrians won't have to wait long to see the hotel complete, with construction to begin as soon as City of Newcastle staff relocate from the CAC to their new premises on the corner of Hunter Street and Stewart Avenue, in a $7 million move designed to draw bereaucrats out of the city centre and create a new CBD in the west.
It's hoped the Kingsley will be ready to receive guests by November 2020, in time for the Newcastle 500.
Jeremy Bath is hailing the sale as a win-win, promising beneficial flow-on effects.
"We have delivered for ratepayers an exceptional result," he said, "Indeed, we have delivered the best of both worlds - a financial sale well beyond our valuation of the building which will also generate a significant number of jobs."
Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes is confident the Kingsley forms the missing piece of the puzzle in Newcastle's revitalisation.
"The location of the Kingsley will, overnight, reinvent the Civic Precinct," she said, "guests staying in the luxury hotel will now be within just 100 metres' walk of the Civic Theatre, Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle Museum and the Civic Playhouse.
"The existence of a five-star hotel complete with a light rail station immediately across from it will finally create the thriving cultural precinct our city has longed for," Mayor Nelmes said.
Cystalbrook Collection CEO Mark Davie said it was that centrality, and Newcastle's recent transformation through the light rail, which drew him to the Roundhouse site.
An element of history has been alluded to in the hotel's name, with early settlers dubbing Newcastle as 'Kingstown' in 1804.
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| Artist's Impression: The CAC recognisable but refreshed as the Kingsley. |
