Richmond Square Hotel

Fortis has won approval to build a 57-room hotel into the first two floors of Carmine House, the centrepiece of its AU$330 million Richmond Square precinct between Richmond and Cremorne. Rather than standing apart from the 107 apartments above it, the hotel is designed to share housekeeping, concierge and dining staff with residents. Targeted for Q1 2027, it still lacks a confirmed name and operator.

The place

Richmond Square sits at 1-5 Wiltshire Street, Richmond, tucked behind the corner of Swan and Church Streets in Melbourne's inner east, on the boundary with the smaller, gallery- and wine-bar-heavy pocket of Cremorne. East Richmond railway station and Barkly Gardens are both close by, the Yarra River trails and the MCG precinct are within a couple of kilometres. It is a workday and inner-suburban address rather than a CBD or waterfront one, which fits a project pitched at residents and business travellers over holidaymakers chasing skyline views.

The concept

In June 2026, Fortis secured planning approval to build a 57-room hotel across levels one and two of Carmine House, one of two residential towers at the centre of Richmond Square, its AU$330 million mixed-use precinct on the former industrial land between Richmond and Cremorne. Once complete, the precinct will comprise 107 apartments split across Carmine House and its neighbour Wiltshire House, plus ground-floor laneway retail, dining and office space and now the hotel itself — approved but still without a confirmed operator, which Fortis has said will be named later in 2026. The two towers are designed by architecture studio SJB, with interiors by Hecker Guthrie. The hotel's distinguishing feature is structural, not decorative: rather than sitting beside the apartments as a separate business, it is designed to run on the same back-of-house as Carmine House itself. Fortis describes a "service-led lifestyle model" in which the hotel's housekeeping, linen and laundry programs, in-residence food and beverage delivery, grocery stocking and concierge team are available to apartment owners on an opt-in basis — hotel infrastructure repurposed as a building amenity, and vice versa.

Dining & wellness

No dedicated hotel restaurant or bar has been confirmed. What is documented is the precinct's shared dining and wellness infrastructure: Carmine House residents get a bookable communal dining room, an outdoor pizza oven, a terraced picnic lawn and productive kitchen gardens, while Wiltshire House adds a yoga terrace with sauna. At ground level, Richmond Square is built around a network of laneways lined with independent cafes, restaurants and retail tenants, positioned by Fortis as a public hospitality strip in its own right.