The elegant Waldorf Astoria is coming to Sydney

Sydney will soon join London and New York as home to a Waldorf Astoria hotel, with the luxury Hilton label set to make its Australian debut at Circular Quay in early 2025.

From a suitably dress circle location on the site of the former Gold Fields House – one of the city’s first high-rise buildings – the Waldorf Astoria Sydney’s sparkling 28-storey tower will offer enviable views sweeping across the harbour.

The property’s marquee address of One Circular Quay, between George and Pitt Streets, will feature 179 rooms and 41 suites.

An adjacent 59-level tower in the $3 billion One Circular Quay venture will offer some of Sydney’s most desirable apartments, with a penthouse expected to fetch over $100 million.

Like other Waldorf Astorias around the world, the future Sydney hotel will feature the Peacock Alley lobby lounge.

The Peacock Alley name stems from a corridor that linked the original Waldorf Astoria New York (now the site of the Empire State Building) with a similarly upmarket hotel where social elite of the era would gather in their finest to parade between the two, flaunting their financial standing. It's now the name of a restaurant at the hotel's present location.

Tokyo-based Kengo Kuma and Associates and Sydney’s Crone Architects have been tasked with designing the new Waldorf Astoria Sydney, which will solidify the brand’s growing presence across Asia-Pacific, joining the regional stable which includes Shanghai, Beijing, Bangkok and a glamorous resort in the Maldives.

It’s also another sign of phenomenal growth in Sydney’s premium hotel market in recent years with the opening of Crown Sydney and the return of Marriott’s upmarket lifestyle ‘W’ brand expected at the end of 2022.