The first Hyatt Place hotel in Australia opens this week at the $1 billion Essendon Fields business park.
The $60 million Hyatt Place hotel, located strategically between Melbourne Airport and the CBD, is pitched at business travellers keen to avoid the "busy-ness" of the city.
![The Hyatt Place hotel at Essendon Fields opens this week.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170731031307im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/q/0/l/h/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwq00d.png/1497331300693.jpg)
Transport magnate Lindsay Fox bought the Essendon Airport leasehold from the Federal Government for $22 million in 2001.
The property development project, on the airport's surplus land, has been undertaken with Max Beck, a 50-year veteran of Melbourne's property market and includes office space, a hospital, a car dealership precinct, supermarkets and a DFO outlet.
Mr Beck said initial bookings for the hotel had been stronger than expected and 24 companies had already signed up to the hotel.
"Normally it takes up to three years to get occupancy rates up to around 80 per cent but we think we will be there in 12 months," Mr Beck said.
Essendon Fields chief executive Chris Cowan said Hyatt Place's "close proximity" to to the airport and the city "means travellers coming to the north-west of Melbourne can avoid all the busy-ness and congestion associated with the CBD."
"It opens the front door of Essendon Fields to the rest of Melbourne," Mr Cowan said.
The new 166-room Hyatt is connected by a covered walkway to a new 1700-square metre events centre, bar and restaurant anchoring a new precinct at Essendon Fields.
The Hyatt Place hotel brand is more casual than the other Hyatt hotel brands and is pitched at middle-to-upper income Gen X travellers requiring wifi and 24-7 hospitality.
The potential dangers of mixing an operational airport and property development became manifest in February when a small plane crashed into the DFO, killing all five on board.