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2023
9 June 2023
Project's long, long road
If you've driven along the Sydney Road lately you might have wondered what became of the Aden Hotel and Palate Restaurant sites.
Having met each other and fallen in love in Mudgee, Joe and Jill Adendorff are going all-in on a lofty project to transform the Sydney Road address into the Clairfield Hotel.
Originally planned as a staged renovation, the couple, forced by COVID to take a break, discovered that beyond their original vision was something more exciting.
"This whole effort was to bring everything up to one level and then really deliver something that would bring joy for both us and hopefully the people coming to visit," Mr Adendorff said.
"Going from that we planned, which was a largely superficial makeover to where it is now, where we thought: 'of all of the places that we visited over the past adult travelling years, what did we like the most?' and we kind of distilled all of those features and we've integrated that into the finished product of the Clairfield."
The renovations, once complete, will see a 70-seat restaurant open at the site as well as a bar and lounge area for casual food and drinks. On the accomodation side, 46 rooms have been renovated, all common areas were demolished, a new gym and pool will feature and completing the set will be a refurbished conference room, a new grand entrance and 13 luxury suites on an upper level with views of Mount Frome.
"The project itself grew out of control in a really nice way. The initial renovation that we had planned was significantly more pared back and really involved creating a bit more of an entrance and maybe touching up the restaurant somewhat. But it was nowhere near the size and scale that it's grown into today...," Mr Adendorff said.
"The hotel itself - when we took over - was reasonably ordinary and the vision was always to save a bit of money, renovate a few rooms, save a bit of money, renovate a few rooms and so what happened is we tended to renovate between six and eight rooms every two to three years.
"So what that meant was we were left with a piecemeal property with six different generations of looks and feels. And again that was done because we didn't have the reputation, didn't have the capital - you do what you have to do."
The couple previously owned the Gulgong Motel and said the lessons learned in that time were invaluable when it came to overhauling a larger establishment in Mudgee.
"With not a huge budget in Gulgong, we tried to make it something unique. We made the pool area nice and jazzy, graded the car park, redid the concrete and created a nice experience. That was a microcosm that showed us that people appreciated effort and attention to detail," Mr Adendorff said.
"This has been two-and-a-half years or more in the planning. Gone is that piecemeal property where the rooms are all different generations, this is a property where you walk in and everything has been considered," Mrs Adendorff said.
"It should feel very welcoming, very much at home. And we have a great team out there and we get good reviews and that's because we value customer service and things like that, and that won't change.
"We saw this as an opportunity to create something special, something really of place and that really sits within the region.
"...we both have really fond memories of the region. Even today, when I drive into Mudgee I get this pain in my chest because there's just so many beautiful people, there's a sense of community and we really wanted with this property, to do something really fabulous and support the community and really showcase the region in the way that it did for us."
CREDIT: Benjamin Palmer1