Parramatta: El-Phoenician proposes ‘boutique’ hotel, restaurant tower
The owner of blockbuster Parramatta restaurant El-Phoenician has proposed a $17m hotel to rise above the venue’s Church St site in a bid to stave off council replacing it with a public laneway.
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The group behind Parramatta’s famous El-Phoenician restaurant is proposing to build a $17 million restaurant and hotel complex at its Church St site.
The El-Phoenician Group, founded by John El-Bayeh, has designed the project to help the CBD bounce back from the Parramatta light rail construction project and COVID-19, as well as to accommodate an influx of visitors to the Powerhouse Museum.
Mr El-Bayeh — who opened the fine dining Lebanese restaurant and Church St mainstay El-Phoenician in 1998 — is currently in discussion with Parramatta Council about the future of 328 Church St.
That address, which includes his trailblazing restaurant, could make way for El-Phoenician’s 32-storey 104-room Phoenix Hotel, or if it is acquired by the council it could be turned into a public laneway.
Under Mr El-Bayeh’s vision the development would be just 6.6m wide and could be receiving guests as soon as 2023. Boutique hotel company 8hotels is also backing the project.
If the council acquires the restaurant, it would be demolished to make way for a ratepayer-funded 70m laneway which has been in the pipeline for over a decade.
The potential laneway would link for pedestrians from the Parramatta CBD to the new Powerhouse Museum on the banks of the Parramatta River at Phillip St.
El-Phoenician would search for another home in Parramatta if the council chooses to proceed with its plan.
Mr El-Bayeh said if the council supported his hotel plan, the El-Phoenician Group was willing to pay for a shorter laneway, saving ratepayers’ money.
Under his plan, the 110m hotel tower would include four levels dedicated to the El-Phoenician’s restaurant, bar and function rooms and the remaining 28 floors for hotel rooms.
A Parramatta Council spokesman said it identified the restaurant site for potential acquisition before 2007, with the possibility to turn the site into a laneway to improve pedestrian links.
“No decisions have been made in relation to the acquisition of this property,’’ he said.
“To date, no formal application has been lodged with council seeking approval for a hotel on the site.”
The council is the acquisition authority for 328 Church St.
Mr El-Bayeh conceded Parramatta was oversupplied with hotels but he said the accommodation he proposed would be more budget friendly.
“Before COVID there was a lot of demand for hotels and now with COVID, there’s a little bit of an oversupply but a lot of hotels planned for Parramatta are four-star, five-star.
“There’s nothing that’s a 3.5 star hotel. So, it will suit the Powerhouse Museum with small rooms,’’ he said.
Like many Parramatta businesses, El-Phoenician has suffered setbacks from the light rail construction, but the restaurateur — who was instrumental in bringing alfresco dining to Church St in 1998 — said the development would ensure the Phoenician restaurant’s presence in Parramatta continued.
“We are adamant that in three to four years’ time with completion of the light rail and Powerhouse Museum, it will be a good outcome for a boutique hotel in that location,’’ he said.
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