Ascott breaks ground on 97-key Oakwood near Flemington

By Marcus Bennett

The Ascott Limited plans to open Oakwood Flemington Melbourne, a 97-key apartment hotel near Flemington Racecourse, in February 2028. Ascott and Pace marked the project's first construction step with a sod-turning ceremony.

The opening will extend an Australian portfolio that already includes Oakwood Premier Melbourne and Oakwood Epping, the brand's second Australian property in Melbourne's northern growth corridor. Oakwood Epping opened only days before the announcement. Oakwood Premier Adelaide is scheduled to open in late 2027.

What does the 2028 opening add to Ascott's pipeline?

The Flemington project arrives during a broader Australian expansion for The Ascott Limited. Quest Southport opened in June. In August, Quest Canberra Dickson and Citadines Elizabeth Street Pier Hobart opened. Ascott also held a sod-turning ceremony for Quest Elizabeth in South Australia. Ascott described the schedule as a strong year of growth for its Australian portfolio.

Two more hotels across that portfolio are expected to open before the end of 2026. Those dates create a visible sequence of openings and construction milestones, although the announcement does not set room counts or development budgets for the two remaining projects.

David Mansfield, managing director of The Ascott Limited Australasia, connected the site's location to the guest experience Ascott wants to sell. “Flemington is a name people immediately connect with Melbourne. Having the racecourse next door gives this property a real sense of place, and we want that character to come through in the guest experience,” Mansfield said.

He also framed Oakwood around home-like comforts and functional service. Mansfield said: “Oakwood is about the comforts of home, backed by thoughtful hospitality that blends style with practical amenities for the modern traveller. Whether guests are visiting for business, a race meeting or time away, we want them to feel settled from the moment they arrive.”

Mansfield cited business travel, race meetings and time away as intended uses. The announcement provides no room rates, occupancy forecast or guest-spending data. It therefore cannot support conclusions about pricing power or the revenue contribution from Flemington events.

Who owns and designs the project?

Pace Development Group is identified as the owner and developer. People associated with the ceremony included Ascott's David Mansfield, Mark Robertson and James Shields. Robertson serves as area general manager, while Shields leads growth and capital strategy. Celine Hurelle is regional director of pre-opening operations, and Nicolas Dingle heads design and construction.

Pace representatives included Axel Choong, design and development manager; Kate Vorozilchak, head of development; and Shane Wilkinson, managing director. The design assignment combines Jackson Clements Burroughs as architecture lead with Cera Stribley as interiors lead, two named firms carrying responsibility for a 97-key property. The announcement gives no budget or delivery schedule beyond the February 2028 opening target.

Contemporary architecture and interiors will draw on the adjacent racecourse, according to the announcement. The stated visual link supplies a design theme, but the announcement does not specify materials, finishes or how much of it will appear in communal areas and guestrooms.

What operating details remain unstated?

The announcement discloses no capital cost, financing structure, room configuration, food and beverage offer, staffing plan or hotel-level operating model for the coming opening. The release also does not say whether the property will be company-operated, franchised, leased or managed under another structure.

That omission matters because a 97-key hotel can reach opening with materially different economics. The announcement offers no figures to test those arrangements, nor does it provide a construction budget, projected average daily rate or break-even occupancy.

The schedule shows a visible cadence across Oakwood, Quest and Citadines. It does not establish whether each new property will improve portfolio returns. The February 2028 target is the next clear checkpoint, about 15 months after the November 2026 groundbreaking and after the late-2027 Adelaide opening.