
Darwin’s newest hotel, the $150 million Elan Soho Suites, is near completion and will officially open its doors to the public next month.
Tourism Minister Matt Conlan said the 301-room hotel in the CBD is one of a number of new properties opening this year, which will help ease Darwin’s hotel accommodation shortage.
“The 4.5 star élan Soho Suites hotel is a fantastic property which will greatly enhance the range of quality accommodation available in Darwin, particularly for visitors to the Territory,” said Mr Conlan who was given a tour of the hotel’s progress today.
“It’s no secret that accommodation for the holiday market in the Top End has been tight, but this hotel will help boost capacity which in turn will help bring more tourists to the Territory.
“The 301 room hotel will offer one and two bedroom apartments. At least a quarter of the rooms will be quarantined for the holiday, leisure and business events market – which is great news.
“By the end of 2014 more than 700 new hotel rooms and serviced apartments are expected to be available to the leisure market. This includes; the 301 rooms at élan Soho Suites, 238 rooms at Lee Point Village, 60 serviced apartments at Quest Berrimah, and 101 rooms at Argus on Shepherd.
“There are also a significant number of private apartments coming online this year, which will free up more rooms across the city for the leisure market,’’ Mr Conlan said.
élan Soho Suites General Manager, Steve Frichot, said the property is the Top End’s newest home-grown hotel – locally built, owned and operated.
“Opening this hotel shows the confidence we have in the Northern Territory and we expect our business to grow and flourish and we have plans for other hotels in the CBD,” Mr Frichot said.
“This is a state of the art hotel offering Wi-Fi in all areas of the building, a unique housekeeping logistics control system using iPods, Darwin’s first remote check-in facilities and Darwin’s first Korean Barbeque Restaurant.
“Attracting business events is also a key market for us, so we have a dedicated conference floor housing six event spaces which can accommodate up to 400 delegates.”
Mr Conlan said the NT Government was committed to boosting the number of tourists to the Territory as part of the vision to develop Northern Australia and deliver $2.2 billion in visitor expenditure by 2020.