Station Hotel set to open at Church St Parramatta
A licensed venue for workers and residents will soon open in a tired part of a Sydney CBD that has suffered from a lack of investment while being in the shadow of a retail juggernaut.
NSW
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The O’Hara Group is expanding its portfolio of licensed venues in Parramatta with a pub for up to 450 patons in the centre of the CBD.
The Station Hotel at Church St is opposite Westfield and will open in the later half of the year though the owners remain tight lipped on a specific date.
The double-storey watering hole will feature a general bar and gaming area on the ground floor, and a second bar and dining area upstairs where there will be a balcony.
Patron numbers will be capped to 200 after midnight at the hotel, which will operate 10am to 4am Monday to Saturday and 10am to midnight on Sunday.
The Station Hotel aims to attract workers and residents.
“The development will assist with further activating the Parramatta CBD and provide an new venue in an iconic building to cater for the rapidly expanding work force and additional residents of the Parramatta CBD in close proximity to the Westfield entertainment precinct and Parramatta Square,’’ planning documents state.
It is also hoped the pub will inject more life into Church St’s southern side, the documents continue.
“The commercial strip along Church St South, with the exception of a 78m high and 91m high mixed use building, has suffered from a lack of development and investment over the past 20 years and is underperforming in terms of vibrancy and attracting high pedestrian flow and movement, despite its proximity with the city centre,’’ it states.
That could be chiefly attributed to Westfield disrupting pedestrian movement from the city centre heading south, it continued.
A crime prevention report prepared for the development outlines risk-reducing measures including CCTV cameras, the use of Australian lighting standards, graffiti-resistant surfaces and staff swipe cards in non-public areas.
The report concluded that those measures, along with the design and location of the hotel, would diminish crime opportunities.
The O’Hara Group already has a strong presence in Parramatta, where it has been a long term operator of the Collector Hotel and the historic Woolpack Hotel at George St.
It also operates the Camellia Hotel, along with the Town Tavern and Central Hotel in Blacktown.
The Station Hotel was approved in 2022 and the fresh development application involved the transfer of the Argyle Street Hotel 50m away.
The premises formerly housed a nightclub that catered for 2000 revellers before the state government acquired the land for the station and bus interchange upgrade.
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