Inside KTQ’s Next Hotel Play on Glitter Strip

Off the back of strong demand for its first residential building, KTQ is moving ahead on a 91-key hotel and wellness precinct at its Kirra Point masterplanned waterfront site on the Gold Coast. KTQ development director Jeremy Holmes said the hotel was designed to feel like it’s “been there for a long time”, a deliberate break from the polished, brand-standard hotels lining the strip further north. While much of the Gold Coast’s hotel pipeline continues to chase globally recognised flags, the team behind Kirra Lane is doing the opposite, building its own brand from scratch, retaining ownership, and handing its designers “a lot of rope”, Holmes said. “We’re hotel owners and operators,” he told The Urban Developer . “We will be retaining ownership and developing this hotel—really the brand and the position—from the ground up, so that it perfectly sits in that space and complements the whole Kirra Point ecosystem that we’re creating.” Design ethos built on materiality The design brief, he said, was shaped by a chance visit to Ayrburn, a hospitality and retail precinct outside Queenstown, in New Zealand. “I stumbled across this place, it had just opened. I spent a bit of time there and I was just thinking, whoever put this together is a genius,” he said. The precinct’s designer, Sydney-based Alexander &amp; Co, was brought on to lead the Kirra Lane hotel’s interiors. ▲ A lobby bar with rich materiality has been proposed at the base of the hotel. He points to European beachfront hotels as a touchstone, with local texture: bagged brick walls, patterned tiled guest room floors, breeze block detailing and VJ-panelled ceilings. “It’s a very non-traditional approach to doing a hotel. It’s incredibly bespoke—we’re not designing anything to brand standards for a hotel brand,” he said. “What we did is just give the designers a lot of rope to go out and present something different. And it’s remarkably different.” A right-sized hotel built for service, not scale At 91 keys, the hotel is calibrated deliberately, he said. “It’s big enough, but also it’s not too big that it’s impersonal, so it enables us to deliver a really high level of service.” Food and beverage runs through the building rather than sitting off to one side: a rooftop restaurant on level six, a ground-floor venue geared to breakfast and lunch, and a central lobby bar that doubles as a “little piano bar, wine bar, cocktail bar” in the middle of the lobby floor plate. “It’s closed during the day, and then it opens up into the early afternoon,” Holmes said. Two towers, one laneway Rather than the single elevated podium common to masterplans of this scale, the hotel and the residential tower behind it were pulled apart, a decision that created the precinct’s activated laneway. ▲ Leasing of the laneway will start early 2027 with a focus on food and beverage and local offerings. Anchoring that laneway is the Kirra Point Health Club, a standalone gym, recovery and wellness offering open to the broader market on membership, positioned beneath the residential tower. “It was a no-brainer for us in terms of where we put it in the precinct, because it activates that laneway from five in the morning through to eleven at night,” he said. Both towers’ pools sit on the roof rather than at ground level, which Holmes said was as much a deliberate solar play as a view play. Retail with a local-first mandate The retail component of Kirra Lane will go to market in early 2027 through what the developer describes as a hand-selected, curated leasing process, deliberately steering away from national or global chains. “We’re focusing on uniqueness and local,” he said. “It’s very much a hand-selected process to support this Kirra Southern Gold Coast [identity] … with quite a strong tilt towards food and beverage.” The reasoning ties back to the precinct’s unpretentious positioning brief. “By having local operators, people who know the area and understand the charm and benefits of being part of the Southern Gold Coast, that helps that place-making vision of making this laneway something that belongs in Kirra,” he said. “The only way to do that isn’t by architecture; it’s by people.” ▲ Uninterrupted views of the north-facing Kirra Beach typify the precinct. Long-dated capital, long-term ownership The Kirra site was first acquired in 2009, and the developer’s approach reflects that time horizon. Beyond the hotel, the group is retaining ownership of the precinct’s retail, management rights and pub. “It’s part of our brand and success. We, as developers, are staying here and running the businesses and running the precinct. It gives a lot of people a lot of comfort,” Holmes said. That patience has been tested. An extended approvals delay on the project added about $40 million in construction escalation costs, Holmes said. However, the group’s capital position allowed it to hold the line and refine the project rather than retreat from it. The project’s head contractor is expected to be announced in October, with a handover to site near Christmas, clearing the way for the tenancy campaign to begin in earnest in the new year. “I don’t know of any other masterplan of this scale that’s actually happening on the Gold Coast right now,” he said. “This is a real city-shaping project.”

Hotels
Taryn Paris
Wed 09 Sep 26

Inside KTQ’s Next Hotel Play on Glitter Strip

Get the full story.

Your Land is Worth Millions—Until the State Makes Its Own Plans

Sites Are Scarce, Backlash Is Growing

Land Lease Sector Tipped to Overtake Retirement Living by 2031

Struggling A-REITs Face New Test as Property Sectors Diverge

Redcliffe’s Time to Rise and Shine Arrives as Values Lift, Demands Shift

Developer’s Perspective: Underwriting New Projects in the Current Economic Environment

Blueprint Podcast: Australia’s Biggest Volume Homebuilder’s 20-Day Build Trial

In Conversation: The Living Company Co-Founder Stephen Gaitanos

Market Outlook: Retirement Living and Aged Care Development

Height Limit Clips Time & Place’s Park Street Project

Fourth Time’s the Charm for Melbourne 332-Unit BtR Asset Sale

Centuria Breaks Ground on $40m Brisbane Industrial Precinct

Strathalbyn Site Listed as Town Eyes Next Housing Estate

Webinar | Data Centres In Focus

Online Masterclass | Property Joint Ventures 101

Retail Leaders Forum

Office Leaders Forum

Your Land is Worth Millions—Until the State Makes Its Own Plans

Sites Are Scarce, Backlash Is Growing

Land Lease Sector Tipped to Overtake Retirement Living by 2031

Struggling A-REITs Face New Test as Property Sectors Diverge

Redcliffe’s Time to Rise and Shine Arrives as Values Lift, Demands Shift

HotelsTaryn ParisWed 09 Sep 26

Inside KTQ’s Next Hotel Play on Glitter Strip

Get the full story.

Your Land is Worth Millions—Until the State Makes Its Own Plans

Sites Are Scarce, Backlash Is Growing

Land Lease Sector Tipped to Overtake Retirement Living by 2031

Struggling A-REITs Face New Test as Property Sectors Diverge

Redcliffe’s Time to Rise and Shine Arrives as Values Lift, Demands Shift

Developer’s Perspective: Underwriting New Projects in the Current Economic Environment

Blueprint Podcast: Australia’s Biggest Volume Homebuilder’s 20-Day Build Trial

In Conversation: The Living Company Co-Founder Stephen Gaitanos

Market Outlook: Retirement Living and Aged Care Development

Height Limit Clips Time & Place’s Park Street Project

Fourth Time’s the Charm for Melbourne 332-Unit BtR Asset Sale

Centuria Breaks Ground on $40m Brisbane Industrial Precinct

Strathalbyn Site Listed as Town Eyes Next Housing Estate

Webinar | Data Centres In Focus

Online Masterclass | Property Joint Ventures 101

Retail Leaders Forum

Office Leaders Forum

Your Land is Worth Millions—Until the State Makes Its Own Plans

Sites Are Scarce, Backlash Is Growing

Land Lease Sector Tipped to Overtake Retirement Living by 2031

Struggling A-REITs Face New Test as Property Sectors Diverge

Redcliffe’s Time to Rise and Shine Arrives as Values Lift, Demands Shift

Hotels
Taryn Paris
Wed 09 Sep 26