Hotelier Justin Hemmes secures commercial kitchen to services his venues

Justin Hemmes now has so many hotel venues, he's gone out and spent $8.95 million on kitchen premises at Marrickville to supply them all.

His hotel acquisition trail has intensified over recent months and years.

Justin Hemmes, who has been Merivale CEO since 1997, has spent $175 in the past three years, his biggest outlay The Newport which cost $46 million.

The Merivale group owns a growing portfolio of more than 65 restaurants, bars, pubs and hotels across Sydney.

The proposed kitchen space is just around the corner from Vic on the Park in Marrickville, his most recent purchase which cost around $20 million.

In the immediate vicinity are the Merivale owned Tennyson Pub in Mascot, the Queens Hotel in Enmore and the nearby Vic on the Park.

LJ Hooker Commercial Sydney City Fringe agent Jim Marinos sold the kitchen space property that last had traded for $2.75 million in 2010.

He sold the building at public auction, but Hemmes wasn't in attendance.

His empire includes the Coogee Pavilion, The Newport Arms Hotel and The Beresford.

Hemmes trading in the commercial space has always taken priority over his residential holdings, but that's seen some acquisitions too.

All on or close to the water.

Last year he expanded his holdings in the small hamlet of Berrara, down near Jervis Bay.

He has spent over $11 million on property in the area, dating back to his first $665,000 purchase in 2006.

Hemmes also has a 60 hectare rural retreat further down the south coast, the $7.5 million Glasshouse Rocks estate retreat at Narooma.

His Pittwater waterfront acquisition came last year when he bought the waterfront of one of Australia’s most distinguished production designers, Laurence Eastwood.

His family home is the harbourside Vaucluse mansion, The Hermitage.

The Hermitage was built in the Victorian Rustic Gothic style and is one of the earliest mansions in Sydney's east.

Hemmes grew up in the home that belonged to his parents, mother Merivale, his late father late John Hemmes and his sister Bettina.

His most recent move was to submit plans for a sunroom pavilion.

Landscaper Michael Bates recently undertook a makeover for The Hermitage garden, which he dubs an entertainer’s garden. The garden comes complete with an outside bathtub, and the de rigour fire pit too.

This article was first published in the Saturday Daily Telegraph.