Controversial new five-star Gold Coast hotel set to open

The Age

07-05-2025

The much anticipated Mondrian Gold Coast is finally about to open – two years after its target date.
But anticipation can be a double-edged sword: there's excitement at the arrival of a new five-star hotel that marks the entry of a prestige hospitality brand into not just the Queensland market, but Australia's. And then there's trepidation from locals, who have expressed their concern over the development that the hotel inhabits, a harbinger of the high-rise change happening in Burleigh Heads.
Mondrian Gold Coast is half of a two-tower development that rises to 25 storeys – the other half being a luxury residential apartment complex. It takes up 80 metres of Burleigh beachfront formerly occupied by three older-style unit blocks.
The 'points of difference' Mondrian Gold Coast offers include 208 rooms claimed to be twice the size of the average hotel room in Australia, alongside 132 studios, 76 suites, private beach houses, and the 'Sky House' presidential suite.
The hotel will feature an all-day Italian restaurant, a lobby bar, seafood restaurant, and pool club overlooking Burleigh Beach.
Of course, there's also the Mondrian name. Now managed by Ennismore, a subsidiary of the giant Accor hotel and resort group, its legacy is pure rock 'n roll.
In 1985, a nine-storey 1950s apartment complex on West Hollywood's Sunset Strip was converted to a hotel, and the legend was born.