A new player in the Wagga accommodation market is set to explode onto the scene offering a service that targets top-end travellers, with experts believing the city has not yet reached hotel and motel saturation.
It comes as excavators loom for the Rules Club redevelopment, which in itself will offer a further 82 rooms to tourists and travelling businesspeople.
Spurred on by an established corporate market and steady recreational travel, Riverina Regional Tourism Network chairman Greg Lawrence said the city was “thriving” with visitors.
“We should always welcome good, quality accommodation. You can never have enough of it,” he said.
“It sends a very strong message that Wagga and the Riverina is thriving and worthy of attracting new investment.”
“The Houston”, located on Kincaid Street, will be the first new hotel to crack the market since the opening of the $3 million Bolton on the Park earlier this year, which offers 27 rooms and a restaurant.
Owner Mark Madigan, of Fox and Co Hotels, said the 10-suite mansion would open mid to late-September and target the highest paying travellers.
“There’s definitely a market for it,” he said.
“Wagga has always been a good, strong accommodation town. It’s a huge sporting area, it’s got the air force, Kapooka and a good corporate market. The fundamentals are all there.”
Mr Madigan’s hotel is undergoing renovation works before opening to market and is slated to offer “New York style” accommodation.
Its opening is expected to generate public interest due to its historical significance as one of Wagga’s earliest buildings.
Mr Madigan, who was born in Wagga, stressed the internal and external works were minimal and in-keeping with regulation.
Meanwhile, Rules Club Wagga general manager Jack Jolley said work on a new three-story hotel on Fernleigh Road would begin next month.
Mr Jolley said the hotel would be four star, but management was still formulating a price bracket.
“The market research that we did found that there was demand for another 100 or more rooms in Wagga,” he said.
“Obviously we are not building for no reason. There is a lot happening with Kapooka, sport and leisure that we can draw on.”
