Jazz club to reopen in upmarket Hyatt hotel building
Developer and theatre owner David Marriner has gained planning approval to reopen the popular Bennetts Lane Jazz Club in a new venue behind the Grand Hyatt hotel.
Marriner Group, which operates the Forum, Regent and Princess theatres, was granted approval to convert a space at the rear of the Hyatt building on Flinders Lane into a 260-patron nightclub and jazz venue.
The plans include a live music permit for the ground- and first-floor club as well as a cafe.
But the resurrection of Bennetts Lane Jazz Club could still come unstuck.
The new nightclub will be co-located in the same building as the Hyatt hotel, one of the city’s more upmarket accommodation venues.
The distinctive crescent-moon-shaped Hyatt tower at 121-131 Collins Street is jointly owned by the family of wealthy Indonesian industrialist Sjamsul Nursalim and Morgan Stanley Real Estate.
The owners of the site objected to the original plans. Any objectors have 28 days to lodge an appeal against the City of Melbourne’s final decision.
The nightclub will trade from 7am to 3am the following morning Monday to Saturday, and open Sunday from 10am to 1am.
Marriner Group will undertake a ground-floor extension, internal and external modifications to the building and the enclosure of the first-floor balcony, planning documents show.
The ground floor will include a cafe facing Flinders Lane with the main jazz club on the first floor to be in a refitted space once occupied by the former Monsoons nightclub. It will have a stage, raised seating area, and informal seating and standing area around an existing bar.
A small rooftop deck and balcony will sit above that.
“The built form will sit comfortably against the background of the Grand Hyatt Hotel and will turn a currently unattractive ‘back of house’ into an attractive, friendly and active frontage to Flinders Lane,” the plans state.
Bennetts Lane Jazz Club took its name from a laneway in the northern end of the city.
The jazz club’s former owner Michael Tortoni sold the Bennett Lane name and liquor licence to the Marriner Group in 2015 after selling the building at 25 Bennetts Lane, in which he founded the club in 1992, to another developer.
Mr Tortoni went on to open another popular jazz venue in 2017, the JazzLab, in Brunswick’s Leslie Street. “I’ve always loved Brunswick. There was a property for sale that was perfect for a jazz club,” he said.
The venue is also the headquarters for the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.
