Perth's Royal George hotel hits the market before refurbishment finishes

After sitting mostly vacant for 15 years, in 2017 the heritage-listed property with the cupola tower that makes it a landmark at the end of Jacaranda-lined, low-rise and largely commercial George Street, was bought from the WA government by a developer.

Under the deal, Saracen Properties agreed to restore the hotel’s shabby fabric before embarking on the construction of a nine-storey apartment complex behind it.

Marketing agent Brent Griffith of Realmark Commercial explains that now the development application for the $24 million apartment complex has been approved, Saracen is putting the intriguing old hotel up for sale or for tenancy-even before the scaffolding and screenings have been removed.

Historic hotels in tourist hotspots have been selling like hotcakes and for multiples of millions since the pandemic staunched overseas travel and Australians started rediscovering the tourist potentials of their own backyards.

“The pub market had been pretty exceptional across Australia because people want to go to some place good that’s got a story,” says Griffith, who confirms The Royal George has elicited interest from almost all parties who’ve been invited in to crunch through interiors that are still in the process of being refurbished.

What he won’t confirm is the ballpark price range, citing the EOI campaign due to close on March 5.

But this is Freo where gentrification has been happening for over a decade and where scores of historic properties have been tricked up for accommodation, and galleries, breweries, cafes and restaurants. In Fremantle, Griffith says, “on a Saturday night you can pay $600 to $700 a night for a hotel room!”

The agreed restoration by Saracen Properties of the 1905 Federation free classical-style Royal George, overseen by local architecture and heritage specialists, spaceagency, has involved stripping paint and re-tuck-pointing the external brickwork, restoring the veranda’s lacework and balustrades, and fixing the fabric of the cupola.

It is being offered as what Griffith says will be “a tidy, neat, clean, bespoke shell” before any further fit-out is done because it depends what use the buyer – or tenant – envisages for the commodious four-level building?

It could be a combination of hotel, restaurant, boutique accommodation or, with some upper-level walls removed, a functions or events venue.

Michael Patroni, spaceagency director, says a room that particularly excites him with its possibilities is the limestone-constructed basement that the heritage citation reveals was the original coach house and workshop.

“It’s really tall and the spatial qualities invite some form of new activation. The hotel was built on a steep hill and the huge limestone basement or foundation was built up to the street level. Money was spent doing that,” he says.

Griffith sees potential for a micro-brewery and says while other districts of Freo already have them, East Fremantle is “underserviced for breweries”.

Part of the hotel’s courtyard will be shared by apartment residents and the synergy of the old pub that heritage assessments describe as “typical of the ebullient confidence of (WA’s) boom years”, and the contemporary Michael Patroni-designed apartments, along with this either/or deal of new buyer or tenant hotelier adds up, says Griffith, “to a unique deal for me. It’s not cookie-cutter”.

Patroni’s studio, which has won awards for the work it has done on other heritage hotel adaptions such as the Farmers Home Hotel in Northam, and the Premier Mill Hotel in Katanning, sees a lot of scope for the Royal George’s rebirth.

“Bars and restaurants reactivated in an exciting way … upstairs small hotel suites reworked out of tiny rooms to make them work as modern-day accommodation?”