Andrew Lazarus heads west for $25m Macquarie Hotel deal
Andrew Lazarus’s Eastern Hotels Group has ventured out of the wealthy eastern suburbs to snap up the Macquarie Hotel in Sydney’s outer west and is also keen to cash in on the inner city’s development boom, planning an apartment or boutique hotel on the site of Mr Lazarus’s Soho nightclub, which closed last weekend.
Andrew Lazarus closed his long-running Soho nightclub at 171 Victoria Street, Potts Point. (Picture: News Limited)
Although Mr Lazarus declined to comment on his acquisition of the Macquarie Hotel at Liverpool for $25 million from JDA Hotels, he said Sydney’s pub scene was booming out west. “We are definitely looking out west, that’s where the growth is,” he said.
Closer to the city, Mr Lazarus closed his long-running Soho nightclub at 171 Victoria Street, Potts Point, citing the lack of patrons since lockout laws were imposed last year in a bid to combat violence.
Mr Lazarus, who also owns the Eastern Hotel in Bondi Junction, said Jones Lang LaSalle was working up feasibilities to redevelop the Potts Point site, 100m from Kings Cross station.
In a further twist, Mr Lazarus said he may undertake the redevelopment of the prominent site himself.
“We are looking at residential development or a boutique hotel, no doubt it’s worth more as an alternate use,” Mr Lazarus said.
But it is the state’s lockout laws that have Mr Lazarus fuming, given city pubs are enforcing 1.30am lockouts and 3am last drinks laws, with the legislation covering the Sydney CBD Entertainment Precinct, taking in parts of Surry Hills and Darlinghurst to The Rocks, as well as Kings Cross to Cockle Bay.
Mr Lazarus said the lockout laws had destroyed an entertainment precinct, making his business the latest victim.
The Piccadilly Hotel, incorporating the Soho bar, has been operating on the same site since 1939, and he said it was with great sadness that he had closed it.
“The lockout laws have driven patronage away from Sydney’s most prominent entertainment precinct, making the Soho Bar its latest casualty,” Mr Lazarus said.
“These laws have seen patronage to Kings Cross decline by a reported 84 per cent and when combined with the increased cost of compliance it has made the business of providing entertainment no longer viable.”
He said the rising Sydney property market and demand for boutique accommodation provided better alternatives for The Piccadilly Hotel. “With numerous approaches over recent months by developers I have decided to close the current operation and focus on the alternative use options by engaging consultants to provide a feasibility study for the site.”
Mr Lazarus said he was exploring a concept from New York combining residential with boutique hotel accommodation, restaurants, a member’s bar and spa facilities.
The Soho was not the only nightclub to be hurt by the new lockout laws, said Doug Grand, chief executive of the Licensing Accord Association of Kings Cross. Mr Grand said since the imposition of lockout laws in Kings Cross in 2012 (two years before the city imposed lockout laws on CBD premises), eight licensed premises had closed, while 35 non-licensed premises such as cafes and takeaway shops had shut. “It’s affected whole local communities, there’s business failures all the way through,” Mr Grand said. “To bring the restrictions without an economic back-up plan has been devastating for the area,” he said.
Meanwhile, JLL’s national director of investment sales, John Musca, who negotiated the sale of the high-profile Macquarie Hotel, said about 500,000sq m of extra commercial and retail development was slated for the Liverpool area.
The Macquarie Hotel, at 269 Macquarie Street, features 30 pokies and is located on a 1000sq m plus site with development potential.
The hotel had been held by the privately owned JDA Hotels group for more than 30 years.
