The heritage rebuild has been met with delays due to flood damage, but here’s what to expect when it finally reopens.
Its opening date may have slipped by six months, but the old Fox Hotel now has a new name. In mid-2026, Ghanem Group will reboot the classic South Brisbane venue as Hotel Terminus, returning it to its original 1920s moniker.
The rebranding comes after the Ghanems put the question to a public vote. The result was unveiled in a media release overnight, along with a batch of detailed renders of the venue.
“The response to the vote was really good,” Adonis Ghanem says. “We were working with council’s heritage department quite closely, as well, but we wanted to obviously gauge the amount of goodwill to the different names. Because people over 60 will remember it as Hotel Terminus. But anyone, say, in their 50s or younger will tend to know it as The Fox.
“Initially, we had hoped to rename it Hotel Terminus. And the majority of people wanted that so that was really encouraging to see. It’s a big thing to rename such an iconic building.”
It was a close run thing, though, Ghanem says, with The Fox coming a close second to Hotel Terminus. Hence a decision to “almost split the building in two”, with the ground and first floors leaning towards Hotel Terminus, and the upper floors The Fox.
“With all the tradies and subcontractors coming through the building, they all have a story about The Fox,” Ghanem says, laughing. “There’s quite a bit of an affinity for it, but they all seem to think of the rooftop as The Fox.”
That the Ghanems took the question over branding to a public ballot illustrates how seriously the restaurant group – best known for Byblos, Donna Chang and Blackbird Dining, among others – is taking the refurbishment of the four-storey venue, which originally opened as Hotel Terminus in 1927.
That’s in part because Hotel Terminus is something of a homecoming for the family.
“I was born in West End and lived there until I was about 12 years old,” Ghanem says. “My parents are back living there, in that Davies Park area.
“My parents’ first cafe, Cafe Violette, was on Boundary [Street]. I was in there every day as a child. And then Chez Laila came in June 1992 – I was 12 years old and remember that. I used to do the dishes in the back as a little kid. From that day until we opened Byblos, really, we were there almost every single day, so we know South Bank and South Brisbane very well. We’re very attached to it.”
Originally scheduled to open before Christmas, Ghanem attributes the Hotel Terminus delays to this being the “most ambitious” project the group has undertaken.
“It’s certainly been challenging,” Ghanem says. “We went in there with a pretty good understanding of what it would take, and obviously we’ve done some work with heritage buildings before with Donna Chang and Boom Boom Room. That was terribly difficult with some of the restrictions.
“With this, we took a different approach, getting in there quite early and looked to get Council onside.
“But we didn’t really know how much work was going to be involved in restoring the building. There was a bit of damage from the 2022 flood [which forced The Fox’s closure], and it had just sat there for about three years, just collecting dust and mould and a bit of rot.
“We’re a bit behind where we wanted to be,” Ghanem continues. “But that was all about reinforcing the foundations and restoring the building. There’s been a lot of flood mitigation work, and we’re pleased to say it’s the sort of building that’s now going to last another 100 years, easily.”
When Hotel Terminus opens in mid-2026, it will feature dining and drinking across all four levels.
The ground floor will see the restoration of the public bar along with a new entrance off Fish Lane into an 18-metre-high atrium. There will also be a bistro with a “gastropub edge”, a gaming lounge and a bottle shop.
The first floor will be mostly dedicated to events, with two function spaces and a private dining room.
The top two levels encompass The Vixen Room and the Fox Rooftop.
The Vixen Room is intended for late nights, with cocktails and snacks served along to DJs and live music. Renders show a venue decked out in rich burgundy and toffee tones, with plenty of soft furnishings. There will be seating at the bar and at a series of low-set tables populated with cushy armchairs.
The Vixen Room will also provide access to the Fox Rooftop, which is having its amenities rearranged in order to accommodate a larger bar and kitchen. The treatment is lighter up here. Expect rattan furniture, an art deco-inspired tiled bar front and plenty of greenery.
“The area around Fish Lane and QPAC has changed quite a bit and we’ve had our eye on something in that area for a little while, so when the Fox came up as an opportunity it was something we had to go for,” Ghanem says. “There are so many more people loving int that part of town. South Brisbane has turned into the most densely populated suburb in Brisbane – it’s overtaken Kangaroo Point.
“We’re excited to have the opportunity to do something special in that part of town.”
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Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-at-large at Broadsheet Brisbane, and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, the Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among many others.
