No reality TV makeover on The Block for St Kilda eyesore Gatwick Hotel

EXCLUSIVE: The notorious Gatwick Private Hotel in St Kilda has escaped a reality TV makeover with The Block looking elsewhere for a location for this year’s production.

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EXCLUSIVE: The notorious Gatwick Private Hotel in St Kilda has escaped a reality TV makeover with The Block looking elsewhere for a location for this year’s production.

The 64-room 1930s building was certainly a target for The Block producers with word first surfacing that the rundown St Kilda rooming house had caught their eye in November with an asking price in the realm of $11 million.

The Gatwick Hotel on Fitzroy Street, St Kilda. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

The most recent season of The Block was in Port Melbourne. Picture: Ian Currie

By December, and on the cusp of Christmas, rumours had become frenzied with the production said to be close to inking a deal with figures as high as $14 million doing the rounds.

But despite many in the local community willing the sale to happen it may all have just been wishful thinking or perhaps a party season prediction.

Sources confirmed this week that the deal had not gone ahead and The Block would not be taking a sledgehammer to the contentious Fitzroy Street landmark.

The Block is known for targeting Melbourne eyesores.

Previously renovated South Yarra’s abandoned Hotel Saville.

The teams who renovated the former Hotel Savile in South Yarra. Picture: Ian Currie

``I can tell you it has gone away,’’ one source said.

``It is not happening there,’’ said another.

Channel Nine declined to comment when asked to confirm The Gatwick was no longer on The Block’s shopping list.

While The Gatwick would have made for an interesting challenge for contestants, the price, issues with relocating tenants, and the huge media attention the initial approach attracted were factors that worked against the deal. And that is before the logistics of turning the property, known as a local trouble magnet, into luxury apartments that would attract multi-million dollar bids, were factored in.

The Block renovated this rundown block in Darling St, South Yarra.

It got a makeover on The Block Triple Threat.

Triple Threat season included Darren and Deanne Jolly. Picture: Channel Nine

An alternative site has apparently been found in Melbourne — again in a desirable inner suburb location — with production on The Block tipped to get underway next month.

The Block has previously worked renovation magic in Richmond, South Yarra, Albert Park, Port Melbourne and Windsor.

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