The Historic Hadley’s Hotel has opened a massive expansion and will be re-badged as the Grand Mercure Hobart Central Apartments, offering conference groups what is now Tasmania’s largest multipurpose hotel.

Hobart’s historic Hadleys Hotel has played an integral part in Tasmanian and Australian history, playing host to many famous and Australian and international guests including Tasmania’s Errol Flynn and Antarctic explorer Roald Amundsen. 

Now, the 1834 National Trust-listed hotel brings together two centuries of hospitality with the opening of Tasmania’s biggest multipurpose hotel development with a multimillion dollar extension to the iconic hotel.

In one of the largest private developments undertaken in the State, the hotel extension has added a further 125 luxury apartments, extensive food and beverage outlets and conferencing facilities to Hobart.

The new hotel extension has taken on Accor’s upscale Grand Mercure brand, Australia’s fastest growing apartment-hotel brand. The original Hadleys Hotel will be re-badged under the distinctive Mercure brand.

The Grand Mercure Hobart Central Apartments have created the perfect link from Hobart’s 19th Century origins to the city’s new future, with the historic Cascade Brewery Stables fully restored and incorporated between the two properties. The Stables Conference Room is set to become Hobart’s premier wedding venue with its thick sandstone walls, small recessed windows, outlined timber floors and a pitched roof, creating a highly sort after atmosphere for a wedding or special event.

For business travellers, the addition of a Grand Ballroom will see the hotel’s meeting and conferencing capacity increase from 250 to 400 delegates. In addition, a new four-level car park will cater to the increased number of delegates utilising the new conference facilities.

Grand Mercure Hobart Central Apartments and Mercure Hadleys Hobart Hotel general manager, Shelley Richards, said “The new development will really energise the CBD area of Hobart. The city has long-needed the extra high-quality accommodation, conference space and restaurants, and we believe this will prove very valuable in winning major events to Hobart in what is a very competitive market.

“The new project has cleverly incorporated the two heritage buildings into the overall development, and preserves the history and character of the area while adding contemporary and stylish apartment accommodation.

“We are confident that the combined hotel facilities will soon become the leading venue for interstate and international conferences events in Hobart, while the restaurants, cafe and bars will give the city centre more dining and entertainment options.”

Accor regional manager Victoria/Tasmania/South Australia, Scott Boyes said that the extensions to Mercure Hadleys Hobart Hotel would provide even greater benefits to the hotel and for local tourism.

“Hadleys is one of Tasmania’s and Australia’s best known heritage hotels and with the new extension we believe that we can greatly increase the hotel’s position and reputation in the market place,” he said.

“Accor is also a leading operator in the meeting and conference market, which means that the hotel’s function and conference facilities will be heavily promoted throughout the Accor network in Australia and overseas, and in turn, put the spotlight on Hobart and promote additional tourism to the State.”