Melbourne CBD set for some Hemmes and Lucas multi-million dollar magic
Hospitality icon Justin Hemmes has teamed up with Melbourne restaurant king Chris Lucas, to open a new $10 million restaurant redevelopment in the CBD that the pair hopes will revitalise the city.
Hemmes and Lucas are transforming the former Society restaurant in Bourke St into a three storey French themed entertainment and dining complex called Batard that will employ up to 500 people.
The Sydney pub baron will also spend $50 million on a seven-storey entertainment building in Flinders Lane, with his company, Merivale, also buying a new site for $15 million near the top of Bourke St.
Lucas owns Chin Chin and Grill Americano in Flinders Lane, and Society venue in Collins St.
Launching Batard is a long-held dream for Lucas.
“It’s such a beautiful building that once housed the original Society,” he said.
“I’ve managed to also buy two other sites that will form part of the new Batard and recreate some of that beautiful history.
“Batard will be such a fun place with lots of exciting components, including a rooftop bar and lavish dining elements that capture that sexy chic French energy, but in a very Melbourne way.”
Melbourne City councillors will tomorrow consider an amended planning permit for the Batard development, including heritage conditions noting that Society was around in the 1930s when it was opened by Italian migrants Giuseppe and Antonio Codognotto.
Lucas has been busy rebuilding the confidence in Melbourne’s hospitality scene. Over the past 18 months, the Lucas group has created more than 1000 hospitality jobs.
“I look forward to Batard employing over 500 young hospitality professionals itself, and for it to be a huge endorsement of Melbourne’s well-earned status as the culinary capital of Australia,” Lucas told The Herald Sun.
“It will be humbling and so exciting to join esteemed dining institutions like Florentino, the European, Becco and Pellegrini’s, and to call them neighbours.”
“While it has seen some hard times, I’m sure better days are ahead for the Bourke Hill area, which remains one of Melbourne’s great culinary precincts.”
According to acting Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece Melbourne has seen a significant jump in building permits for hospitality and retail.
“Nowhere is this more so than in the Bourke Hill precinct which is going through a renaissance and will once again be one of the city’s great hospitality precincts,” he said.
“At one end of the market you’ve got titans like Chris Lucas and Justin Hemmes making massive investments in new venues.”
“At the other end, you’ve got a new wave of Asian restaurants which are so popular they have long queues of people waiting down the street – Hot Pot, Korean BBQ, and Ramen is so hot right now.
“Good luck to them all – at the end of the day all Melburnians will benefit from the extraordinary array of dining and hospitality options that are available.”
Jonathan Jackson, 14th August 2023
