A luxury hotel will be built on the site of a demolished Blockbuster video store in Fortitude Valley as part of an $80 million mixed-use development.
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The 1826 square metre lot at 458 Brunswick Street was purchased for more than $9.2 million in October 2015 and a year later a development application was submitted to the Brisbane City Council.
The site borders Bloodhound Corner Bar and Kitchen on one side and a small two-storey retail block on the other. The land is vacant except for a blue-and-yellow Blockbuster sign that stands in the corner.
More recently, the site has gained notoriety for street art depicting Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in a Betoota Advocate article.
On Friday, the council gave the green light to the 13-storey building with 140 hotel rooms, 30 residential units, offices and a rooftop terrace with a restaurant or bar to be built on the site.
The five-star hotel will be one of the chain's first in Australia, with one also recently approved for Melbourne.
Hotel Indigo has entered a management agreement with Queensland developer Pointcorp.
Pointcorp director Chris Vitale said Hotel Indigo would bring the best of the local area of Fortitude Valley to visitors.
"This high-quality mixed-use development is expected to be the first development of its kind in the area, creating a new hub for the Valley," Mr Vitale said.
The council's City Planning chairman Julian Simmonds said the development was a welcome redevelopment of the vacant lot.
"The hotel will be the first of the Hotel Indigo chain in Australia and New Zealand and is evidence that our economy is going from strength to strength," he said.
The council launched an initiative in 2011 to encourage four- and five-star hotels to be built in Brisbane.
Cr Simmonds said although Hotel Indigo would be a new luxury hotel for the city, it would not qualify for the hotels incentive.
"Council received this development application late last year, after the incentive had concluded," he said.
"The Lord Mayor's hotel incentive attracted international interest for investment in Brisbane and delivered 18 hotel projects which have created 1100 new jobs."
It was understood the hotel would open in 2020.
