Hilton has signed a deal this week to manage a new 600-room hotel in Melbourne.

Hilton Melbourne Square will be a major meetings and events hotel and will join the recent signing of Hilton Melbourne Little Queen Street, reinforcing Hilton’s push to strengthen its presence in the Melbourne market.

Hilton will manage the hotel under a management agreement with Yarra Park City, the joint venture company between OSK Property and EPF, and is slated to open in early 2023, with construction to commence 2020.

Located in the centre of Melbourne’s Southbank precinct, on the corner of Power and Kavanagh Streets, the new-build hotel is part of a AUD$2.8 billion mixed-use development comprising of residential, commercial, speciality retail and 3,700 square meters of open space parkland.

Hilton Melbourne Square will be ideally located in close proximity to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre and Melbourne Arts Centre.

“Having recently signed Hilton Melbourne Little Queen Street, we are thrilled to have now signed another Hilton Hotels & Resorts property with Hilton Melbourne Square, this time a major meetings and events property,” said Heidi Kunkel, vice president, operations, Australasia, Hilton.

“Melbourne is an extremely important market and with two new Hilton Hotels & Resorts properties joining our existing DoubleTree by Hilton hotel on Flinders Street, we look forward to welcoming both business and leisure guests to all three unique properties.”

Comprised of 600 spacious rooms, including 28 suites and one Presidential Suite, Hilton Melbourne Square will feature an Executive Lounge, four food and beverage outlets, including a rooftop bar and an All Day Dining restaurant, a fitness centre, an indoor pool and extensive meeting and event spaces totalling over 2,800sqm, including a 1,140sqm ballroom and a 840sqm junior ballroom.

Tan Sri Ong Leong Huat, Chairman, OSK Property, said, “We are delighted to have partnered with Hilton on this landmark hotel. This new hotel will offer extensive, state of the art convention facilities capable of hosting the world’s largest conventions in addition to capitalising upon a very robust local demand for function facilities.”

“Hilton has an exceptional reputation in the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions space and we are excited and confident to have Hilton driving this business within our new facility, together with 600 cutting edge hotel rooms. Hilton Melbourne Square is a superb complement to the broader Melbourne Square mixed-use precinct.”

The hotel will also be a short walk across the river to the Docklands precinct, Southern Cross Station and Melbourne’s central business and shopping districts.

“Hilton Melbourne Square is an exciting addition to our Melbourne and wider Australasia portfolio and we are extremely pleased to be working with both OSK Property and EPF to bring our world-renown Hilton Hotels & Resorts brand to Melbourne’s Southbank area.” said Guy Phillips, senior vice president, development, Asia & Australasia, Hilton.

Hilton Melbourne Square will join 27 hotels presently operating under the Hilton portfolio throughout Australasia.

James Wilkinson

Editor-In-Chief, Hotel Management