A development application has been lodged with Rockhampton Regional Council to turn Barry and Violet Funch's land on Hunter Street into a 205-room, eight-storey upmarket hotel.

The hotel, which includes major conference facilities and a restaurant, would be more than double the size of any current hotel in the city and would be marketed as a landmark entrance into Rockhampton, the gateway to and capital of, CQ.

While a tourism leader was yesterday talking up the benefits of the hotel, which include about 250 full-time jobs during construction and ongoing work for 500 after completion, a resident in the nearby area questioned the move.

Rockhampton Regional Council mayor Brad Carter said the council would consider the application very closely and carefully. Cr Carter said the developer needed to convince council engineers the project on the low-lying land met the required criteria.

One of the issues being worked through is that the site is a high-risk mosquito area.

"I am very keen to see these sorts of developments considered by council," Cr Carter said.

He said he had been briefed by the developer and was impressed by the proposal.

Capricorn Tourism general manager Alan Chamberlain said the development would bolster what was available in the city.

"We have very few large-scale projects, in particular branded products of this scale and style," Mr Chamberlain said.

The hotel will target the business/corporate market. A report prepared by Urban Economics for the development said the city had a "dearth of large quality accommodation".

"The proposed hotel would introduce much-needed room stock to Rockhampton, a market experiencing strong growth in visitor numbers and particularly strong growth in airport passenger numbers," the report's author Kerrianne Bonwick said.

"Without new infrastructure, growth in the overnight visitor market will be stymied and Rockhampton starved of the opportunity to enjoy the economic flow-on effects." The application has been made by Macewand Pty Ltd.

The developer was unavailable for comment.