The four-star, seven-floor Pacific Accor will be built on Smollett Street between the new tax office and AMP Lane.

Volt Lane developer David Harper announced the plan last night after meeting city council officials and Pacific Accor’s development manager Matthew Tripolone.

Project partner Barry Morgan, a Canberra investor with 25 years’ experience managing hotels, is working with Mr Harper’s Le Hunte Properties and Pacific Accor on the project.

It is expected that the Doma Group, which built the tax office and car park, will construct the hotel, using a 33-metre-high facade that matches the tax office.

“We’ve finalised negotiations for an Accor-branded hotel to be constructed within the Volt Lane complex,’’ Mr Harper said.

“Construction will start in November and early works next month.

“The opening is expected in October next year.”

The All Seasons Albury Lake Hume Resort resort is part of the French-based Accor group’s franchise network.

Mr Tripolone said Accor had wanted to establish in Albury for years.

It has hotels on the Murray at Mildura and Swan Hill and would build another at Echuca.

“Albury will be a full-service hotel with restaurant, bar and conference facilities,’’ he said.

The mayor Alice Glachan said: “to secure a development of this significance in this economic climate is a testament to the level of national market confidence in Albury”.

A regional planning committee, headed by former NSW planning minister Pam Allan, approved the plan in November for a tall building matching the taxation office.

It is part of the $53.5 million plan to develop Volt Lane. A basement car park for 45 cars has already been built.

The Accor will partly straddle the Smollett Street ramp to the public car park.

Albury hasn’t had a new hotel since Rydges was built as the Travelodge in the 1970s. Several motels and the Quest apartments in Kiewa Street have been build since.

Editorial — page 26