Why adaptive reuse hotels in Sydney city are more prevalent since the 1980s

Abstract

A vast range of redundant buildings have been converted to various forms of tourist accommodation for thousands of years and Sydney has excellent recent examples of this phenomenon. This study has sought to understand why adaptive reuse hotels have been more prevalent in Sydney city since the 1980s. Research of academic, industry, authority & property documents have contributed to the creation of customized Tourist Accommodation Registers for all current and most former tourist accommodation in the city, to allow analysis and comparison of both adaptive reuse and custom-built establishments across all types including hotels, pubs, serviced apartments and backpacker hostels. A study of the characteristics and history of tourism, adaptive reuse buildings, heritage and property sector dynamics related to Sydney city have provided context for this thesis and revealed trends and counter-cyclical patterns of hotel development in the city. The effects of heritage awareness, legislation and fluctuating property fortunes since the late 1970s, together with the inherent suitability and sustainability of hotels for conversion from a wide range of building types, have combined to make adaptive reuse hotels a significant feature of Sydney’s tourist accommodation scene. The faster delivery, relatively smaller scale and good triple bottom-line ESD credentials of adaptive reuse hotels compared with custom-built hotels have made them flexible, viable and attractive to owners and developers and more prevalent since the 1980s. Although large custom-built hotels still dominate room numbers in the city, the challenges of site consolidation for large developments, and changing tourist patterns including more free-independent travellers from China and other huge growth markets, should continue to enhance the attractiveness of boutique and authentic establishments, especially those converted from obsolete heritage buildings in prime tourist precincts. Due to their long history of hospitality, hotels are usually perceived to be more public than other commercial building types and consequently more politically palatable for conversion of government assets, which will continue to be the source of adaptive reuse opportunities.