Newcastle's third five-star hotel will open in April and is already taking bookings as building crews put the finishing touches on the luxurious waterfront development.
Located on Honeysuckle Drive, the harbour-facing Little National Hotel is in the heart of the city's entertainment precinct and features 181 rooms, along with a 24-hour wellness centre, lounge bar and a library with private work spaces.
The hotel was built by Canberra-based developers DOMA, and is the third within the Little National brand and the seventh in the company's hotel portfolio
"With the substantial development of the Honeysuckle Precinct over recent years, we saw this as a great opportunity to provide guests the ability to explore Newcastle's newest entertainment area," DOMA managing director Jure Domazet said.
"Our approach has always been to provide guests with a convenient, modern contemporary hotel experience, without the cost of five-star accommodation."
The hotel is adjoined to a high-rise 5750-square-metre office building, which DOMA says is "Newcastle's first cross-laminated timber workplace opening".
The eight-storey office building is also due to open in the first quarter of 2024, and Mr Domazet said the two projects would complement each other.
"We believe in the future it will be increasingly common for hotels to provide more of the co-working spaces that are so highly sought after around the world," he said.
"We have seen an international design movement to provide increased amenity to office workers by utilising the spaces available in other buildings, such as hotels.
"As office buildings usually only operate during business hours, five days a week, have a set number of users and need to maximise tenancies, making a financial argument for including recreational and occasional-use facilities, such as meeting spaces, can be difficult.
"Hotels, by contrast, welcome guests every day who expect to be able to enjoy a meal, workout, or simply relax and unwind. Traditionally, businesses may have utilised public spaces of hotels, but with this design we are formalising and optimising this relationship."
Plans for the $44-million development were first lodged with the state government in 2018, with construction starting in May 2022.
For many years, Newcastle had no five-star hotels. But within the past three years, the city has been graced with two in quick succession, with Kingsley opening in 2021 and QT in 2022.
DOMA is also behind The Store apartments on Hunter Street, located just a stone's throw away from the Honeysuckle project.
