Marriott Docklands, Melbourne – First Marriott to be Built in Australia in 20 Years

Date: April 2018

Location: AUD $250 million mixed-use The Docklands project, Waterfront Way, Melbourne, Australia

Name: Marriott Docklands – five star, opening 2020

No. of Keys: 200 plus 100 one to three bedroom apartments, with 28-metre wet edge resort-style rooftop infinity pool and adjoining bar, a ground-level bar, a restaurant and a laneway cafe.

Seller:

Buyer: Melbourne developer Capital Alliance, started in 2012 with AUD$1.5bn development to date and AUD$200m assets under management, headed up by Founder and Chief Executive (28-year old!) Mohan Du, who said “The city’s newest five-star hotel will enliven Docklands with its shared facilities for guests and residents that blur the lines between hotel and residential living, reflecting similar trends in mixed-use development that have reshaped the industry in New York and London,” Mr Du said.

Capital Alliance developed MDocklands with 248 residential apartments and the 5 star, 87 room Peppers Hotel amongst other sites.

They say they are showcasing a design that boldly illustrates the evolution of the traditional five-star hotel for a new generation of traveller who lives, works and plays much differently.

Gone are the staples of older five-star hotel rooms: carpet, heavily branded decor and clunky furniture such as closets, chests of drawers and writing desks.

The hotel will instead feature 200 rooms with clean timber flooring, beds sitting atop frames, a small table for dining but no desks and exposed joinery replacing closets.

Designed by DKO Architecture, The Marriott Docklands will also offer the hotel lifestyle to working professionals, couples and even families living in 100 oversized one to three-bedroom apartments above the rectangular hotel podium, which sprouts into two curved petal-shaped towers of 17 levels each.

Marriott International senior director development for the Australia-Pacific region Richard Crawford said the new five-star hotel reflected the evolving needs of guests who used hotel rooms differently than in the past and had high expectations of hotel luxury based on sophisticated Asian, European and American hotel experiences.

“We’ve reinvented the hotel room as we’ve found that hotel guests don’t use desks in hotel rooms, preferring to lounge on beds or sofas or work in well-designed communal spaces with a relaxed atmosphere,” said . “They also don’t want their clothes and possessions hidden away in storage.”

The Docklands will sit atop the newly renamed and revamped District Docklands shopping centre, featuring top retailers such as H&M and a soon-to-be-completed cinema complex. Hotel rooms and apartments will have spectacular views of the sunset in the west over the Bolte Bridge or views back towards the city centre.

Recognising that business travellers prefer to work on laptops in hotel bars and other chic communal spaces rather than hotel rooms, the Marriott’s stunning ground-level bar will include side tables designed to accommodate laptop computers.

Capital Alliance Founder and Chief Executive Mohan Du said The Docklands development would appeal to a broad demographic of business and leisure travellers of all ages while the much larger than average residential apartments were already tempting downsizers and young families to the convenience of apartment living.

“The city’s newest five-star hotel will enliven Docklands with its shared facilities for guests and residents that blur the lines between hotel and residential living, reflecting similar trends in mixed-use development that have reshaped the industry in New York and London,” Mr Du said.

THPT Comment: Marriott say: In a nod to Melbourne’s status as Australia’s fashion capital, the Marriott Docklands’ rooms will have the retail-influenced feature of wall racks that showcase guests’ fashion purchases or spring racing outfits rather than confining them to closets.

I am sorry…what?!

First Seen: Hotel Management Australia