Colemans Hospitality Group has opened Landmark @ Gateway – adjoined to the Gateway Shopping Centre in Palmerston City in Darwin.
The entertainment venue trades until 3am seven days a week, and encompasses 2000 sqm over three levels. Director Justin Coleman stated that Landmark is the largest investment the group has ever made in a single venue, with the “seven figure sum” spent on the venue set to “change everyone’s perception of a night out.”
Landmark consists of indoor and outdoor dining areas that seat 500, a gaming room with 20 EGMs, uBet facilities, a basement sports bar, a function/conference space, a large beer garden with a 15 sqm LED outdoor screen, and a nightclub. The second floor will be home in future to a restaurant offering that will seat 200.
“Our catch-line is ‘good times, on every level’, which ultimately reflects not only the size of the venue, but our feel-good philosophy,” stated Coleman.
The venue’s aesthetic draws on the natural landscape, and the food offering focuses on modern Australian cuisine. There will also be 24 different beers available over 112 taps.
“The theme of the entire venue is that of the natural environment, drawing inspiration from local iconic Litchfield and Kakadu National Parks with stone, wood and greenery key features along with floor-to-ceiling prints from local photographer Paul Arnold,” explained Coleman.
Away from Mitchell Street
Landmark is the most recent project from Colemans Hospitality Group, after selling the leasehold of famed Irish pub Shennangans in Darwin City to Australian Venue Co late last year. The Coleman family had opened and operated the famed Mitchell Street since 1996, but the decision to sell reflected a new investment focus in other areas of the Northern Territory capital.
“In a way this investment is a bit like when we first made the leap into Mitchell Street. A lot of people questioned that at the time too, but it paid off because we had faith in our vision. In the same way, we have enormous faith that the growth of the Darwin-Palmerston region will see Landmark as the new centre of it all,” stated Coleman.
“It forms part of our continued vision to improve on what is on offer as a hospitality experience in both the Territory and interstate. We want our venue to offer the best of what the punters can find anywhere in the country.
“We’d like to think this is a landmark point in time when the best venue in the Territory may not be in Mitchell Street or Darwin city. It’s a big investment but one we’re prepared to back because we have faith in our vision.”
Shopping complex venues
Landmark is the anchor tenant of the Gateway Shopping Centre and the first to open in the complex, but it is not Colemans Hospitality Group’s first experience with operating a venue attached to a shopping centre.
Shennanigans Adelaide opened in the Marion Shopping Complex – owned by Westfield Group – in 1998, and older brother Michael ran the venue for almost a decade. He said that the venture had been tough initially, and would bring many lessons from that experience to Landmark.
“It was one of the first pubs in an entertainment precinct and shopping complex in the country at the time. So we’re in a unique position of having extensive experience with a venue in a shopping centre featuring an entertainment and leisure precinct and the nuances that go with that.
“There are many similarities between the Westfield Marion Shopping Centre and the Gateway development simply due to the fact that they’re both located in fast-growing areas.”
The opening of Landmark represents an exciting time for the group for many reasons, including being the first venue that all three brothers – Michael, Justin and Tony – have worked on together.