Hotel Indigo Melbourne Little Collins

Hotel Indigo Melbourne Little Collins opened on 11 September 2025 behind four preserved heritage facades on Little Collins Street, the centerpiece of IHG's first dual-branded Australian development alongside a separate Holiday Inn nearby. The 179-room hotel, designed by Buchan for developer Steadfast Capital, centers on Fern Bar & Dining under chef Darryl Hand and a design language built around the site's history as jewellers' and bootmakers' premises.

The place

The hotel sits at 288 Little Collins Street in the heart of Melbourne's CBD, one block from the Bourke Street Mall retail and tram corridor and within easy walking distance of Flinders Street Station, the Block Arcade and the city's main shopping and theatre precincts — a dense, pedestrian-first stretch of the grid rather than a peripheral site.

The concept

Hotel Indigo Melbourne Little Collins is a new-build tower rising behind four retained heritage facades — Diamond House, the Public Benefit Bootery, Allan's, and the York Building — former jewellers' and bootmakers' premises whose street fronts have been preserved as the base of an otherwise contemporary hotel, an eight-year redevelopment led by developer Steadfast Capital and built by Hickory. Designed by Buchan, the interiors use the site's retail history as a throughline: a three-storey mural titled 'Cabinet of Curiosities' by Adelaide artist Lisa King, a signature 'Mondrian blue' color scheme nodding to Melbourne's blue street-name signage, a soaring spiral staircase and an internal courtyard tie the old facades to the new build behind them. The project marks IHG's first dual-branded development in Australia, opening alongside — but operationally distinct from — a separate Holiday Inn Melbourne Bourke Street Mall on the same redevelopment site; the two share a footprint and development timeline but not a building or a guest experience, and should not be conflated. It is also IHG's second Hotel Indigo in the city, following an earlier, unrelated Hotel Indigo Melbourne on Flinders Street that opened in 2023 — the two properties are separate hotels under the same brand rather than one project in two phases.

Dining & wellness

The hotel's restaurant, Fern Bar & Dining, seats 62 on Level 2 under executive chef Darryl Hand, with a wine list built almost entirely around local Australian producers and signature cocktails developed with Little Lon Distilling Co.; Fern's Garden, an adjoining courtyard, extends dining capacity to up to 100 guests. A fitness centre with Lifecycle equipment, free weights, stationary bikes and treadmills is also on site; no pool or spa has been reported.