Transforming a tired office into a full-service hotel
Instead of sending a 10-storey office to landfill, HTI Group has created a modern hotel that “looks like a brand new building” and anchors Canberra’s new mid-town precinct, says HTI Group’s Adam Howarth.
Canberra’s new Mantra MacArthur Hotel has opened its doors to meet the growing demand for hotel capacity in the nation’s capital.
HTI Group purchased 219 Northbourne Avenue early in 2015. The 10-storey commercial office tower, sited right on Canberra’s new light rail corridor, lent itself to an efficient arrangement of hotel rooms.
HTI Group was established by Jon Tanchevski and Adam Howarth. The pair brought together two long-standing family businesses – Blackett Homes and Classic Constructions – with the goal to transform vacant and underused spaces into vibrant new precincts.
AMC Architecture was appointed to overhaul the building’s design, creating a modern industrial aesthetic with 136 hotel rooms and 40 suites, as well as a new restaurant and bar, a fully equipped gym, conference and meeting spaces, car parking, an internet lounge and 24-hour reception.
According to HTI Group director Adam Howarth, feedback on the $19 million retrofit has been overwhelmingly positive.
“Northbourne Avenue’s regeneration has been largely the product of major knockdown-rebuild projects but, instead of sending the 10-storey building to landfill or concrete recyclers, we’ve transformed it into a full-service hotel in what looks like a brand new building,” Howarth says.
“The former building is barely recognisable and, while the main precast façade elements of the original office building were retained, the remainder was stripped back to a bare shell to allow us to create a modern hotel.”
The hotel is operated by Mantra Group, which has 129 properties across Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Hawaii.
Mantra Group chief executive officer Bob East says the property provides a much-needed new hotel offering to support the growth of international and domestic tourism in Canberra.
“New hotels in key precincts play a critical role in promoting a vibrant visitor economy while meeting the needs of growing visitor numbers to Canberra, attracting first-time and returning domestic and international travellers,” East says.
Mantra Group now operates just under 0 rooms across four hotels in Canberra.
Mantra MacArthur Hotel anchors Canberra’s new mixed-use Midtown precinct, which will also include residential units, office space and a range of cafés and restaurants.