Ovolo Group Continues Australian Hotel Expansion with Canberra Acquisition

Hong Kong-based Ovolo Hotels has secured another Australian boutique hotel property with the acquisition of the rights to manage the 68-room Hotel Hotel in Canberra.

The leasehold acquisition with local developer Molonglo Group includes the businesses, operations and staff that work for the hotel and its hatted restaurant, Monster kitchen and bar.

Molonglo Group owns the Nishi building which houses the hotel.

The change in management will come into effect from March 1, 2018. It’s the first management arrangement for Ovolo where it doesn’t own the underlying hotel building.

Ovolo Group announced the $40 million purchase of Brisbane’s Emporium Hotel in Fortitude Valley earlier this week from the Anthony John Group.

Ovolo will now operate in Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra, following rapid expansion for the company with three new hotels joining its portfolio in the last six months.

“Ovolo has been well received in Australia and we are proud to bring our signature concept to the Australian capital. We believe this venture is the perfect alignment and are delighted to be associated with this property,” Girish Jhunjhnuwala, chief executive of Ovolo Group said.

Nectar Efkarpidis, director of Molonglo Group said: “We wanted to do something special in both Canberra and Australia, and I think we’ve achieved that. Hotel Hotel was the physical manifestation of ideas that we had been exploring for several years – about architecture, design and furniture, and how they can help us to evolve and expand Canberra’s civic sense of itself with others.”

The negotiation was facilitated by national director of CBRE Hotels, Wayne Bunz.

As owners of the NewActon Precinct and the Nishi building, Molonglo Group will continue to activate the precinct through its cultural program.

The Nishi building won the International Project of the Year at the 2015 Building Awards in London.