Board Director of Destination Gold Coast, tourism veteran Mark Hodge, will swing into the role of The Star Gold Coast general manager hotels and residences.

The appointment means Hodge will take charge of the greatest concentration of hotel rooms and holiday-let apartments on the Gold Coast and the only integrated resort in the country with four hotels.

Hodge, who also chairs the Accommodation Association of Australia’s Queensland State Advisory Board and was Mantra Group executive before starting his own consulting business in January, said the move was a new lifestyle option for the Gold Coast.

“This is the first time that people will be able to live here and enjoy everything that a place like this has got to offer,” Hodge said.

He will be responsible for opening the high-end holiday apartment market for visitors to The Star, which will bring almost 900 apartments to the short-term holiday rental pool when work is finished on the accommodation towers currently under construction at the Broadbeach island.

The Star Gold Coast Chief Operating Officer Jessica Mellor said Hodge’s appointment was part of The Star’s growth strategy.

“In addition to managing The Star Grand and The Darling, Mark will lead us through the introduction and management of apartment accommodation on the island for the first time through our two new hotel and apartment towers currently under way,” Mellor said.

Hodge said he would work with residential apartment owners on the new offering for guests to The Star.

“The new short-stay, holiday-letting program will enable our guests to immerse in all the comforts of luxurious apartment-living for the first time when they book their trip or holiday, as well as enjoy the property’s diverse range of amenities, restaurants, bars, and entertainment,” Hodge said.

“Importantly, its central location to the heart of Broadbeach also means positive flow-on benefits to surrounding businesses, bringing new guests and residents to explore and spend in the wider community.”

The Star currently has two new projects being built to sit alongside the existing The Star Grand hotel and the luxury all-suite The Darling hotel to eventually create four hotel options for visitors to The Star.

The 53-storey Dorsett Hotel and Apartments is due for completion next year. More than 90 per cent of apartment have already been sold.

In February, work also commenced on a new $400 million 63-storey tower expected to be operated by the Marriott Group. That tower, the fourth on the site and which will include 210 hotel rooms and 457 apartments, is expected to be completed by 2024. More than 70 per cent of apartments in that tower have also already been sold.

The four towers combined means The Star precinct will offer nearly 1200 hotel rooms and suites as well as up to 900 high-end apartments.

Under a $2 billion expanded masterplan, approved by the Queensland Government in November 2018, The Star could move to construct a further three hotel towers to complement the four already underway.

The masterplan is being overseen by Destination Gold Coast Consortium—the joint venture between The Star, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, and Far East Consortium.

The joint venture partners which are also currently in the process of delivering the $3 billion Queen’s Wharf integrated resort and residential development in central Brisbane.