Albany Beachfront Hotel Wins Approval

Investment company Collab Capital and hotel developer Pacifica have been greenlit for their $32-million hotel development at a “landmark” site at a coastal WA town.

The Regional Joint Development Assessment Panel approved the development at Middleton Beach, known by traditional owners the Noongar peoples as Binalup, 4km west of the centre of Albany.

The applicant, Pacifica Ausglobal Albany, is a vehicle associated with Wei Su, Lulu Ma and John Zendler. The latter is listed as a managing director at Collab Capital and director at Pacifica.

The hotel will have 69 rooms, comprising 47 one, 19 two and 3 three-bedrooms, plus a 436sq m tavern and retail store. 

The plans show a terraced design, presenting as two storeys at the north-eastern corner of the site, up to a maximum of eight storeys. 

The tavern will be open to the public—the developer said it hoped the project would further activate the street and “contribute significantly to the ongoing public realm improvements in the Middleton Beach precinct”.

▲ A render of the Box Architects’ plans for the 69-room hotel.

The 3719sq m site is Lot 10 Flinders Parade at the south-western end of the Middleton Beach foreshore.

It has been vacant since the demolition of the Esplanade Hotel in 2007.

Community concerns about the lack of progress on the site prompted the WA government to purchase the land in 2014. 

Landcorp, alongside the City of Albany and other stakeholders, subsequently prepared the Middleton Beach Activity Centre Structure Plan to facilitate “a cohesive revitalisation” of the broader precinct.

The approved hotel is part of that precinct.

Pacifica operates across Australia, including hotels on the east coast, such as the Sage Hotel in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, the Grosvenor Brisbane, and the Port of Airlie Marina in northern Queensland.