Dilapidated Darlinghurst shop comes with plans to turn it into a boutique hotel
A dilapidated Darlinghurst shop, in Sydney’s east, is looking for a buyer to hit it with a wrecking ball.
At 255 Victoria Street the former shopfront glass is broken, the weeds are taller than the back fence and both levels are completely uninhabitable. But on the plus side it comes with development approval for a three-storey, eight-room hotel and a cafe on ground level.
And buyers are interested, particularly as price expectations are hovering around the mid-$1 million mark, according to selling agent Luke Smith from Raine and Horne Commercial.
Mr Smith said the property had been listed online for less than a week and already had had about 50 inquiries, many from developers interested in the hotel plans, but also some with other ideas for the property in the sought-after city fringe suburb.
“There’s been a mix of inquiries because it would suit a variety of retail and commercial uses, given its position, which benefits from strong foot traffic and being close to unis, schools Hyde Park and the city,” Mr Smith said.
“If they wanted to run with the hotel concept then that’s there and done, but if they wanted to amend the DA and look at maybe a shopfront with residential above, that’s an option too.”
The dilapidated shop at 255 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst, is attracting plenty of interest. Photo: Supplied
The old shop is on Darlinghurst’s bustling Victoria Street shopping strip and 500 metres from Kings Cross train station.
Records show the site last sold in 2014 for $1.34 million and the development approval for a hotel was given in November 2015.
According to the approved plans by PHI Design and Architecture, the ground floor would include a street-facing cafe, as well as an elevator, cool room and storage area.
The first and second floors would each have four hotel rooms, two with balconies and there would also be a rooftop terrace, close to the action of Sydney’s world-renowned New Years Eve fireworks.
As the block size is similar to that of an inner-city terrace, at only 114 square metres, it would be difficult to build more than three storeys.
The Darlinghurst property from the rear. Photo: Supplied.
The sale comes at a time when hotels are hot property, with a recent Deloitte Access Economics report forecasting 12,800 hotel rooms – more than twice its long-term average growth rate – will be completed by the end of 2018, with developers trying to catch up to booming demand.
Less than a kilometre away a larger development site in Darlinghurst is for sale, including an apartment block and three other buildings on a 1287-square-metre block.
The shop will go to auction on May 23.
