Green light for $72 million precinct

A $72 million North Lakes Eco Lifestyle Precinct, creating 150 jobs, has been given the green light.

The eco-lifestyle hotel and wellness retreat will be built on the corner of Anzac Ave and Diamond Jubilee Way, Mango Hill.

It is expected to be open in 2026, meeting a growing need for hotel accommodation ahead of an expected influx of visitors for the 2032 Olympic Games.

The five-storey, 112-room hotel and precinct, from the Maple Development Group with design by Open Architecture Studio, will combine environmental awareness and education, community connections and healthy lifestyles.

Much needed

There will be a day spa, organic grocer, garden to table dining venues, regular recreational events and food trucks, a naturopathy, home and garden centre, indoor and outdoor spaces, natural lighting, breezeblock walls, a fire pit and outdoor yoga platform.

“This is exactly the kind of investment I was hoping to attract to Moreton Bay when I went to the Australasian Hotels Industry Conference & Exhibition in Adelaide back in June to try attracting investors to our region,” Mayor Peter Flannery said.

“Not only is this a high-end and eco-friendly development, it will help to provide much needed accommodation for visitors in a tourism market that’s currently surging beyond expectation.

“We know Moreton Bay needs up to eight hotels and 1035 hotel rooms by 2032, with four hotels needed by 2026. This is an exciting start just five months after we put out the call for investors.

Opportunity

“Moreton Bay is an opportunity not to be missed. We now see double the number of annual visitors that Noosa does, with 4.3 million visitors in 2021, and the fact is we don’t have enough accommodation to meet demand.

“We currently only have 204 full-service rooms which has been exposed by a growing number of major events, festivals and sporting events such as KiteFest, the NRLW Grand Final, Abbey Festival, Jetty-2-Jetty, and Moreton Bay Food & Wine Feastival.”

Maple Development Group’s Managing Director Nick Liu said they chose the Moreton Bay site because of the region’s surging tourism industry, lower operational and land costs.

“It is exciting to see this project become an inviting and welcoming precinct for locals and visitors as well as getting a balance between the lifestyle and economic growth in the region”, he said.

“We will now conduct a process to select the right international hotel brand to suit the location and our stunning property.”