A RIVERLAND community hotel has begun work on a $7 million development that it projects will bring about 7000 additional visitors to the region each year.
The Berri Hotel recently broke ground on the project to construct 20 new high-end units on vacant land along Riverview Drive that the hotel purchased from Berri Barmera Council in 2015.
The project received $1.5 million in funding through the State Government’s Regional Growth Fund and $500,000 through the Federal Government’s Murray Darling Basin Grant program.
Berri Hotel chair Paul Stewart said developing the site had been a long-term plan for the hotel’s board.
“Probably for the last 20 to 30 years it’s been on the agenda, and we were lucky enough to buy the land six years ago, but it’s taken some time for us to do our justification and organise the finance and look at what the opportunities were,” he said.
“We are absolutely ecstatic that we can get started now.”
Hotel manager Jeremy Sweet said staff were enthusiastic about the new developments.
“I think it is an exciting opportunity for Berri to have Riverview Drive utilised to its full potential,” he said.
“We run a few packages, and I’ve had feedback from local shop owners mentioning how many people have come through on those packages and how wonderful it is to see them out in the town spending money.”
Mr Stewart said the new units would provide “unique, high-end and quality accommodation”.
“It’s focused at the traveller with a bit of extra money to spend, and it will provide accommodation that probably hasn’t been available in the Riverland, or particularly in Berri,” he said.
“The region generally has been focusing on hotel/motel accommodation and caravan parks… so we think it’s pretty unique here in the Riverland.”
Chaffey MP Tim Whetstone said the new accommodation would be an asset for both Berri and the wider Riverland community.
“Our visitor market is growing and is increasingly sophisticated so our region must continue to develop to meet those needs,” he said.
“This is also a great example of what can be accomplished through collaboration with our Government and industry.
“The $1.5 million invested further demonstrates the Marshall Liberal Government understands the importance of regional South Australia to the prosperity of our state.”
The construction of the new units has created 20 direct jobs and more than 30 indirect jobs, with the hotel projecting 12 direct and 19 indirect jobs will be created once construction is completed.
“We are going from 70 rooms to 90 rooms, so there will definitely be more hours on the ground for workers,” Mr Sweet said.
“Each added visitor generates their own income for the town, not just via our community donations, but also in the money they spend in other stores.”
At the January meeting of the Berri Barmera Council, Mr Stewart and 1834 Hotels CEO Andrew Bullock gave a deputation to elected members outlining the plan.
Mr Stewart asked council to consider moving the boundary of the hotel’s property to allow guests to access the car park for the new units via Depot Street and for a boundary fence or net to be installed between the oval and hotel.
Mr Stewart said the hotel would expand its rear carpark, with parking spaces out the front set to be removed as part of council’s Riverview drive redevelopment.
“There’s definitely a plan for the rear carpark… for us to create substantially more parking,” he said.
Mr Stewart said with this project the hotel was only developing half of the land it purchased from council in 2015.
“Once this development is completed we will assess what goes on from there,” he said.
“We have a preliminary strategic discussion in the next couple of months about what we are going to do there, but that’s very dependent on the outcome of this development. It’s pretty daunting but also pretty exciting.”
Mr Stewart said the development is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2021.