Melbourne's classic Hotel Windsor to get $260 million tower!

Classic and historic Melbourne’s Hotel Windsor is to receive a $260 million upgrade, which goes a lot further than upgrading the current hotel, with the plans including building a massive tower immediately behind the current hotel and its historic façade.

The developers claim that the proposal, lodged with planning authorities including Heritage Victoria will ensure the long-term commercial viability of the hotel and re-establish the Hotel Windsor as the pre-eminent Melbourne hotel, but critics , including the National Trust are reeling from the scale of the plan and the impact the 25 story tower will have on the historic building, an iconic Australian landmark.

Director of the Melbourne-based Halim Group Adipoetra Halim which owns the hotel, said, “We want to recreate the Windsor as one of the world’s great hotels, but it cannot survive as a leading hotel even in its local market without a major improvement in facilities, services and space.”  The National Trust to the contrary are saying that the owners knew what they were by buysing when they bought the classic, protected building and it should be left very much the way it is.”

While the plan does include the refurbishment of the original hotel building and its key historic features, with the exterior restored more faithfully to its original appearance, including the reinstatement of the Spring Street colonnade, the most controversial aspect is the proposed construction of what the developers describe as a, “Slim and elegant 25-storey tower, set back 25m from Spring Street and Bourke Street, that acts as a “curtain” draped behind the original historic hotel building”, and “It presents a distinctive form and finish that acts as a backdrop and “frame” for the hotel.”
The new Windsor hotel will have an extra 152 rooms, bringing total accommodation to 332 rooms and suites and an economic analysis prepared for the Hotel Windsor by Essential Economics says the project will create 560 jobs a year during the 30 month construction period, employing 135 more people and creating another 175 jobs through the employment multiplier effect.”  It is also claimed that the refurbished hotel will generate additional visitor spending of $14 million per year in Melbourne.

Refurbishment plans for The Hotel Windsor were previously approved by Heritage Victoria in March 2008, but since then, ownership of the property has been acquired by the Halim Group, which began a full review of long-term options for the site and its economic viability, including an analysis of comparable landmark hotels around the world.

Hotel Windsor CEO and general manager David Perry said, “The Hotel Windsor is at an historical crossroads, born during the Marvellous Melbourne period when this was one of the richest cities in the world, but today the old duchess looks tired and dowdy, adding, “To maintain relevance in the contemporary tourist market, she needs a modern makeover like some of the great other old hotels around the world.”

Mr Perry said the Hotel Windsor was built just before the Ritz in London, the Ritz in Paris, the Waldorf Astoria in New York and Raffles in Singapore, but the Hotel Windsor had slipped behind these hotels because it had not expanded and adapted like the others.

Mr Perry said the Hotel Windsor had the best afternoon tea experience in Australia – and it was staying exactly the same – but no swimming pool. It had a magnificent Grand Ballroom, but no space for big functions and guest rooms considered too small by modern standards. It had a magnificent past, but an uncertain future unless it was expanded and improved.

He also said, “This concept is an exciting major project for the hotel, for the City of Melbourne and for Victoria’s tourism sector. The proposed new design is an exceptional piece of contemporary architecture that complements and highlights the original Hotel Windsor, which regains its dominance and elegance against the new backdrop.

“Most importantly, the plan delivers a world-class luxury hotel, providing the range and number of guest rooms, dining options, function rooms, indoor pool, gymnasium and spa areas commensurate with the world’s great grand hotels.

The proposed renovation and re-development is subject to planning and financial approvals and subject to these approvals, preliminary work is expected to begin in the last quarter of 2010.

The challenge will be to maintain the grandeur, albeit dowdy, which I prefer to call “faded elegance” of the current Windsor, or will it just become another impersonal, world hotel, that could simply be anywhere?