Business View Oceania | September 2020

37 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA SEPTEMBER 2020 INTERCONT INENTAL MELBOURNE THE R I ALTO The reaction has been amazing. It’s a unique destination experience in the middle of the city and no one else will ever have it. “We also have something called the History Project with various interns and college students rotating through doing research. And we use the Melbourne Genealogical Society to help us track down real people and learn their life stories, and we try to connect with their descendants. The space I’m talking to you from is in the basement and was actually a chocolate Easter egg factory. By pure coincidence one of the descendants of the founder of that factory brought some family members and was talking about the space outside my office window and I went out and met them. We love hearing the stories. Architecture is great, but what makes this building the way it is are the souls and stories of all the people who went through it. That’s our focus and our differentiator.” BVO: What other special features and technology do you offer? Steube: “We have an enclosed rooftop pool and gym, that’s a lovely place to be. Melbourne is not the warmest in the winter and you can’t swim outside, so it’s very important to our leisure weekend business. For dining, we have two exceptional establishments. “Merchant” is a fantastic restaurant owned and operated by Celebrity Australian Chef Guy Grossi and is inspired by the rich Venetian culture and authentic cuisine he experienced through his family roots in Venice. We also have our own full service restaurant that features a hearty breakfast; a wine bar and business lunch product; and at night we do specialty dishes based on local ingredients. “As for technology, it’s there but it’s under the skin, you don’t want it to be overt. An atrium hotel is not usually environmentally friendly because you have to heat and cool it. And in Australia it can be 40 degrees or two degrees, so you can use a lot of energy. By installing