Accor to open Two New Hotels in Sydney

Accor it to launch its new 5-star Pullman brand in Australia, with the Pullman Sydney Olympic Park scheduled to open in August 2008. The group has also signed a deal to add an Ibis hotel to its growing Australian portfolio. The new-build Ibis King Street Wharf, which is currently under construction, is planned to open by the end of 2008.

The Pullman Sydney Olympic Park is being developed by Tourism Asset Holdings Limited, one of Australia's largest hotel ownership companies, of which Accor is a minor shareholder.

Pullman is best known for its association with the luxurious railway carriages that changed the face of overnight accommodation on trains in America, the UK and Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. Accor acquired the brand name in the early 1990s as part of its purchase of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits.

Accor is using the Pullman name for a new upscale hotel brand that will be positioned between the newly upgraded Sofitel luxury brand and the well-established 4-star Novotel brand. The Pullman Sydney Olympic Park is part of a global launch of the brand that will initially include 50 Pullman hotels in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South America. The first Pullman hotel opened recently in Bangkok, and the group is targeting 300 hotels by 2015.

The contemporary 18 storey, 212 room Pullman will include 14 suites, 340 square metres of conference space plus pre-function areas (for up to 220 delegates), a boardroom, Pullman executive floor and lounge, lobby 'chill out' area, 24 hour gym, business centre, 24 hour IT solutions manager, restaurant and bar, and underground car parking with 130 spaces. The hotel's interior design is by Joseph Pang.

The hotel will use 40% less energy than most equivalent 5-star hotels, with solar panels on the rooftop supplementing power consumption. A specific focus in the hotel construction has been on the selection of natural materials, with priority on building products with recyclable and recycled materials. 80% of water used in the construction of the hotel is targeted to be re-cycled.

The new Pullman will service the rapidly growing business and meetings community in the Olympic Park precinct and the greater western Sydney area. Sydney Olympic Park is currently home to over 60 businesses including Orlando Wyndham, Dairy Farmers, QBE, BP Solar and Eveready. These will be joined by a number of other major businesses over the next two years, including the Commonwealth Bank, which has already relocated 1400 staff to Sydney Olympic Park earlier this year and will grow their presence to 5000 employees by the end of the decade. Elsewhere in the surrounding region, companies such as ANZ, National Australia Bank, Macquarie Bank and AAP have moved to this burgeoning commercial district. Sydney Olympic Park is also a major venue for conferences, exhibitions, entertainment and sporting events.

Accor is also opening a Formule 1 hotel at Sydney Olympic Park in 2008, which will bring the number of rooms operated by Accor at Sydney Olympic Park to over 600.

The Hotel Ibis King Street Wharf, an eight-storey, 91-room hotel, on the corner of Erskine and Shelley Streets, is also being developed by Tourism Asset Holdings Ltd.

The new Ibis will be part of a combined retail and hotel development that will cover approximately 1490 square metres of prime real estate on the corner of Shelley and Erskine Streets at King Street Wharf.

King Street Wharf has become one of Sydney's leading restaurant, bar, entertainment and retail areas in the past decade, and is within five minutes walk of many of the city's leading business houses, including the corporate headquarters of American Express, Westpac and KPMG.

The site has easy access to the city, Cockle Bay and Darling Harbour. Ferry and charter cruise services are available from King St Wharf, and the Wynyard train and bus interchange is 300 metres from the hotel site.

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