The Bourbon, Empire Hotels: New redevelopment plan put to the people
A $65 million redevelopment of four socially-significant Potts Point blocks, will keep part of The Bourbon Hotel and reimagine The Empire Hotel, according to a new proposal. This follows heavy resident backlash over a previous plan.
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A new $65 million proposal to redevelop four central Potts Point blocks including The Bourbon and Empire Hotel will now retain the two pubs in some form, following hefty community backlash.
The fresh proposal by owners Piccadilly Hotel Operations Trust would knock down everything but three facades between 18-32 Darlinghurst Rd, which include frontages at the 1880s Bourbon pub building, the 1928 American-style Commodore apartment block and 1890s Lowestoft site.
Piccadilly Hotel Operations Trust Pty Ltd, connected to Iris Capital, who have employed Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects for the project.
Fifty-four residential apartments and 59 hotel rooms, as well as a hotel lobby, would also be constructed on the site, across a part-five, part-six and part-seven storey mixed-use development.
Eighty car spaces would be built across four basement levels.
The $65,444,808 proposal for the area from the El Alamein Fountain to the landmark Empire Hotel, includes the part-retention and part-redevelopment of the existing Bourbon pub and the redevelopment of the Empire Hotel.
The ground-level pubs would both be “smaller in size than the existing venue spaces”, according to the plans.
“The proposal seeks consent for two pubs, known as The Bourbon and The Empire to reinstate the existing uses on the site,” the development application reads.
“The design of the new Empire Hotel building includes a curved ground floor awning and an interpretative artwork referencing the past use and character of the site and its historical and social significance to the LGBTQI community,” the plan reads.
The proposal also retains a medical centre and multiple retail spaces.
A 2017 development application by Iris Capital, which sought to demolish the whole site to build 83 apartments with 101 car spaces, new bars and retail stores, was withdrawn following a 12,300-signature petition and hundreds of objections.
Following the backlash, City of Sydney Council listed part of the old Bourbon Hotel and the Empire Hotel, designed by Neville Gruzman and once home to the cabaret nightclub Les Girls, as local heritage items.
According to the new heritage controls, the Empire Hotel could be knocked down and redeveloped if the history of the site was architecturally reinterpreted.
The four-block site currently includes a three storey building (the Lowestoft) occupied in part by Blake’s Pharmacy, Fountain Medical Practice and Woke Yoga Studio, and a separate eight storey residential building (the Commodore), which houses a ground floor pharmacy and tobacconist.
The new Bourbon venue, as laid out in the proposal, would face Darlinghurst Rd, and include 22 tables on the terrace and footpath areas, as well as 30 gaming machines, according to the plans.
The development application is on exhibition until October 20.