WELCOME to the Chifley Albury, the new name for what used to be the Travelodge, Carlton and Country Comfort.
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The hotel with 140 guest rooms is undergoing a $2.5 million facelift and the new name will be adopted formally in about five weeks.
General manager Mark Munday said yesterday it would be the sixth Chifley after others in Penrith, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Geelong.
More are planned in Newcastle and Dandenong.
They are all high-quality hotels that focus on corporate and conference guests, as well as international and domestic visitors who want to be close to a business district.
Mr Munday said the Chifley Albury would be up-graded to a 4½-star hotel when the “soft refurbishment” was completed.
Air-conditioning improvements account for about $1 million of the work.
Other changes will include relocating the Cadell Restaurant to the Dean Street frontage and creating a function room in the former restaurant.
The Chifley’s sister hotels are both in Wodonga Place.
The 60-room Hovell Tree has been rebranded the Country Comfort Hovell Tree, while the Sundowner Paddlesteamer retains its name.
All three are owned by Lend Lease Real Estate Partners 2 and managed by Constellation Hotel group.
The three hotels came under Lend Lease ownership after the $47.5 million takeover of the Sundowner group in March.
Until last year, Grand Hotel Group had owned the eight- storey Dean Street hotel since 1996, when it paid $10 million for it.
Constellation managed the hotel for Grand Hotel Group from 1998.
Gough Whitlam opened the original Travelodge in 1971, the year before he became prime minister.
Dennis Kilmartin and three associates bought the hotel in 1988 and renamed it the Carlton.
The name recalled an earlier hotel that had been on the same site.
Grand Hotel Group then renamed it the Country Comfort in 1996.