Inner Sydney pubs call time

Another wave of bars across inner Sydney are set to close as the city’s lockout laws bite deeper.

The recent closures have followed more than 70 pub shutdowns over the past three years across the inner city. Many of the closures are located in Kings Cross where dwindling foot traffic has bled the area of revellers, but there have also been closures in parts of the inner west and lower north shore.

Former pub or nightclub sites up for lease include the one-time premises of the Sapphire Lounge in Kings Cross and a site once home to the nightclub Moulin Rouge. The premises of Mug Lifein King’s Cross is up for lease again less than two years after last being vacant.

The site of former small bar Mr Fox in Surry Hills is also up for lease, along with the premises of Absinthe Salon. The former site of The Basement near Circular Quay also remains up for rent after the bar closed in April.

Erskineville’s Swanson Hotel premises are for lease, while the site of the historic Town Hall Hotel in nearby Balmain is for rent again after the original pub closed.

Other pub operators that have recently put their businesses up for sale via expressions of interest campaigns including for Redfern’s Norfolk Hotel and Neutral Bay’s Pickled Possum.

Factors behind the swathe of closures include an over-supply of dining and drinking options on the high street as fashion retailers pull out due to the online challenge. Changing demographics are also kicking in, according to Oxford Real Estate leasing consultant Daniel Marano.

“There is less of a going out crowd living there now,” he told News.com.au. “Most of the landlords haven’t responded to that so rents are still high even though there are less people out.”

Sheridan Randall, 29^th October 2018