Surry Hills hotel site snapped up by Golden Age

Sydney property developer Michael Teplitsky has sold a Surry Hills hotel site off market to Golden Age Group.

There are plans to convert it into a luxury hotel, which has preliminarily been named 'The Treehouse.'

Teplitsky had plans for a hotel at the Wentworth Avenue address which homes the derelict Key College House. The Tyne House premises date back to 1916 with the innovative glazed facade set to be retained.

The 2016 plans would have seen architecture firm Bates Smart add six floors atop the building as part of the conversion to a 19 level mixed-use hotel and apartment development which was dubbed 8Hotel.

The new plans from the Melbourne-based Golden Age Group propose a 19-storey hotel-only development with 287 rooms.

There will be a ground floor restaurant/cafe, bar and lobby, as well as a rooftop bar.

Golden Age chief executive Jeff Xu told the AFR they are confident in the hotel market in Sydney and Melbourne.

The purchase comes after Golden Age and Starwood Capital, Golden Age's capital and funds management division, formed a $600 million alliance last year to develop a luxury apartment and hotel complex on Melbourne's Spring Street.

Golden Age bought the site from Grocon.

Wentworth Avenue has seen a number of conversions in recent years, most notably across the road where the Griffiths Tea building was converted into luxury apartments.

Prices in the block fetched as high as $4 million off the plan, but have struggled to onsell at similar prices.