Accor has welcomed its 400th hotel in Australia and the Pacific with the launch of the heritage-listed The Porter House Hotel – MGallery in Sydney.
Novotel Sydney Darling Harbour (1991), Accor's first hotel in the region, was a key catalyst for the redevelopment of Darling Harbour into Sydney's prime tourism, entertainment and events precinct. The Porter House Hotel – MGallery is set to boost Sydney's CBD revival with its transformation into a luxury hotel.
Part of Accor's MGallery Hotel Collection, a group of distinctive boutique hotels with their own stories, the hotel was created out of a building commissioned in 1876 by Hugh Dixson, Australia's top tobacco manufacturer and a famed philanthropist and horticulturist. Beginning as Dixson & Sons tobacco factory and warehouse, it transformed into a retail shopfront for the artisan furnishings of WW Campbell & Co and famous leather merchant George Johnson & Sons.
Located on Castlereagh Street, The Porter House Hotel – MGallery features 122 guestrooms and suites, which occupy the first ten floors of a 36-storey mixed-use development. A residential component consisting of 131 apartments, with private entry via Bathurst Street, sits above the new MGallery hotel. At the same time, a multi-level food and bar destination resides within the restored 1870s heritage-listed building itself.
Guests have access to all restaurants and leisure facilities - including a fitness centre and heated pool - via the Porter House Hotel's exclusive Digit Valet walking, talking iPad concierge, the only one of its kind in Australia.
Led by award-winning architect Angelo Candelapas of Candelapas Associates, the historic Porter House building is seamlessly connected with the ultra-modern tower built around the original building, creating a stylish, urban sanctuary. The new-build hotel pays homage to the building's heritage and Sydney's bustling Victorian commercial era with a contemporary take on old designs, such as curved windows reminiscent of the original building's iconic brick archways.
The opening of The Porter House Hotel is part of a dynamic expansion of Accor in the Pacific region, with 11 pipeline hotels slated to open before the end of 2023. They include the brand debut of the 25hours in Australia, new airport hotels at Melbourne Airport and Auckland Airport, and another heritage restoration in Sydney, Hotel Morris, which is being created out of the 1929-built former West End Hotel in Pitt Street.
