Millie Phillips calls time as Kingsview Motel, Kings Cross sells to neighbour, Bourbon's Iris Capital
Iris Property Group has bought another Kings Cross development site, next door to the Bourbon Hotel which they only recently bought.
Iris has paid around $18.75 million for the 61 room, 300 backpacker bed, former Kingsview Motel which comes with two retail stores at ground level.
The motel, at 30 Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross, was first offered formally in the late 1980s with a rental income of $163,000 a year from Neptunes Restaurant, which was then part of the motel next to the former Club Swans. Its current operators have the premises trading as DLux furnished apartments.
It has been long held by Millie Phillips, better known for heading the Milstern Health Care retirement village and nursing home outfit.
Millie Phillips was often cited for many decades as among Australia's richest self-made businesswoman, after buying a small boarding house in Sydney's Ashfield in the early 1960s after she had just separated from her husband and had three children to support.
The space above the Bourbon Hotel is ear-marked for redevelopment into apartments after its recent sale to Iris.
The C.inc hotel group, headed by Christopher Cheung, secured about $28 million for the Kings Cross icon, The Bourbon Hotel earlier this year when bought by the apartment developer and hotel operator Iris Capital's Sam Arnaout.
The Bourbon was marketed last October with having capacity for around 80 apartments (artist's impression below) with bar facilities at street level.
The Bourbon and the adjoining former Sydney Swans Club in Kings Cross had been listed after Cheung told the SMH the lockout laws in the inner city had influenced his decision to sell and focus on his other assets, including the Coogee Bay Hotel and Cruise Bar, Circular Quay.
They optimistically suggested the buyer would be "part of the area's Covent Garden/Soho transformation."
Cheung bought the Potts Point properties that sit on 6,300 square metres from the former ING Real Estate Entertainment Fund in 2010, after a hailstorm caused the roof of the Swans club to collapse.
Cheung spent about $10 million upgrading the landmark Bourbon hotel, which boasts 30 gaming machines and hotel licence with a separate $4 million realisation value.
The site was being marketed as potentially accommodating apartments, with retail and or a wine bar at street level.
The Bourbon arose from the ashes of the famed Bourbon and Beefsteak in The Cross.
China’s largest developer Greenland Group has bought the Crest Hotel in Sydney’s Kings Cross from Sam Arnaout’s hospitality and development group Iris Capital.
Colliers International agent Miron Solomons handled the off-market transaction of the property on the Victoria Street and Darlinghurst Road corner.
Iris bought The Crest for about $65 million from Australand in 2012.
The Crest Hotel has development approval for 139 apartments.
Iris had plans to develop the 19-storey tower with an hourglass design by architects Durbach Block Jager.
Following a design competition held by the City of Sydney council, the concept for stage-one plans were approved.
Comparisons have been drawn between New York's Times Square and the new site for DBJ's The Crest.
Image of new Crest from Durbach Block Jaggers.