Hotel work at Myer site resumes

WORK has resumed on the $45 million hotel slated for the CBD’s Myer site.

The much-anticipated Crowne Plaza was due to open in October after the InterContinental Hotels Group signed a management deal with Tasmanian-based Kalis Group in 2015 to build the luxury hotel in the Icon Complex.

Originally slated for 187rooms, Hobart City Council approved a proposal for it to have an extra two storeys added, which would allow for 78 more rooms.

This would mean that the Icon Complex would stand at 52.7 metres, making it one of Hobart’s tallest buildings.

But the progress of the hotel and the overall $100 million development has been delayed following the devastating flood in the basement level of the flagship Myer store, when walls holding back the Hobart Rivulet collapsed last year.

In July, an InterContinental spokesman told the Mercury the hotel would open in the first quarter of 2019.

As part of the resumption of work on stage two of the site, concrete pours for levels seven and eight of the 13-storey building will begin today and finish later this month.

Hobart Lord Mayor Sue Hickey said it was a great step forward for the project.

“Considering all the delays to this project, we are thrilled to see it resume,” she said.

Several other hotels have sprung up in Hobart during the delays, but Tourism Industry Council Tasmania head Luke Martin is unfazed.

“While we have had some new hotels come online, the [accommodation] pressure will still be there, especially in the peak time of summer,” Mr Martin said.

Murray St — between Liverpool and Collins streets — will be closed to traffic from 1am until 7am today and Monday, September 25.