Latest news: Kimpton's new market; another Vegas giant?; Whitbread converts restaurants

Kimpton to Australia. IHG Hotels & Resorts will open its first ever managed luxury hotel in Brisbane, following the signing of an agreement with Kokoda Property to bring the Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants brand to the suburb of Teneriffe in 2028. The 155-room hotel will form part of Kokoda Property’s $1.5 billion mixed-use development comprising extensive ground floor hospitality and retail amenity, commercial offices and multiple residential towers in a lifestyle precinct. IHG has 14 open hotels and has a further five in the pipeline in Australia.

Vegas resort planned for NBA arena. Las Vegas-based developer LVXP plans to build a 2,500-room luxury resort anchored by a new NBA-ready arena at the former site of a waterpark, according to a Las Vegas Review-Journal story. The resort would include an arena with 18,500 to 20,000 seats, a casino, convention facilities, a retail plaza and food outlets that would spotlight Las Vegas restaurateurs. A subterranean parking facility is also planned. The developers didn’t divulge the name of the operator or detailed multi-billion development costs. The three LVXP principals — CEO James Frasure Jr., Chief of Staff Christine Richards and Chief Construction Officer Nick Tomasino intend to submit permitting requests by July and is hopes to break ground on the project late this year or in early 2025.

Whitbread’s new plan for Premier Inn. Premier Inn is set to add another 3,500 rooms to its U.K. portfolio of hotels in the budget brand’s next stage of expansion. Parent company Whitbread said it wanted to “unlock” these extra rooms by converting space at 112 of its existing Brewers Fayre and Beefeater restaurants, which will lead to the potential loss of 1,500 jobs at the group. This move would increase Premier Inn’s total rooms to 97,000 across the UK within the next four years. In the next year, the brand expects to add between 750 and 1,250 rooms in the UK and around 400 additional rooms in Germany.

Hyatt-Peloton deal. Hyatt Hotels Corp.’s World of Hyatt loyalty program is teaming up with Peloton to become the first global hospitality loyalty program with plans to reward its loyalty members with points when they use Peloton equipment at Hyatt properties in countries where Peloton currently operates. The collaboration is set to outfit 800-plus Hyatt properties with Peloton equipment and provide access to Peloton classes on guestroom TVs at nearly 400 properties this year. Peloton Bikes will be deployed at each Hyatt hotel in markets where Peloton already operates – including the U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, Austria and Australia. Select Hyatt luxury and lifestyle hotels in U.S. markets will also offer the Peloton Row. In the future, the collaboration may bring the Peloton experience to Hyatt hotels in other markets.

Accor adds to Handwritten Collection. Accor has announced the 90-room Hotel Woolstore 1888 in Sydney is joining its Handwritten Collection under a hotel management agreement with the hotel's new owners Shakespeare Property Group. The Darling Harbour property was originally built in 1888 and is the fourth oldest of 21 surviving wool stores in Sydney. It marks the fifth partnership between the two companies. Since launching just last year, Accor has opened two Handwritten Collection hotels in Australia - Hotel Morris Sydney and Wonil Hotel Perth.