The sprawling Martin Place site left empty by the recent closure of the failed Botswana Butchery restaurant will be reborn as a multi-level mega hospitality hub – complete with wine bar, upmarket restaurant and rooftop bar – from the team behind Shell House, the glamour venue on Wynyard Lane.

Building work will commence as early as next week at The International Martin Place. The timing is serendipitous, given that the new Martin Place underground metro will open soon.

“The new metro is a game changer,” says Brett Robinson, group chief executive of The Point, the hospitality group behind Shell House and the incoming International project. “Train lines from all over Sydney feed into it. It’ll activate that top end of town, which we think is under-serviced.”

With plans to open for the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday, November 5, The International will be close to the metro’s Martin Place entrance. A number of seasoned hospitality players have also spotted its potential, with Melbourne pastry mecca Lune Croissanterie opening and Etymon Projects (the team behind The Charles Grand Brasserie in the city and Loulou Bistro in Lavender Bay) launching a Mediterranean restaurant called Martin 21, with a cafe sidekick, Marty’s, nearby.

Robinson says he was approached by Dexus, the investment trust property that owns 25 Martin Place, where Botswana Butchery traded, because of The Point’s success operating a similarly scaled site at Shell House, where it juggles a two-hat restaurant, cocktail bar and bistro.

It was announced in April that Botswana Butchery restaurants in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra had entered voluntary administration, along with sibling Sydney Asian-inspired restaurant White + Wong’s, in one of the biggest hospitality shake-outs of 2024.

Licensed for 878 patrons, the site’s revamp – led by designer Anna Hewett with local studio Woods Baggot – will nod to Harry Seidler, the architect of the building that used to be known as the MLC Centre. Guests at The International will be able to choose between a wine bar with small plates from a wood-fired oven, a “high-level dining room” on the middle level and a rooftop bar and kitchen.

“It’ll be snack culture up there, skewers,” Robinson says of the rooftop offering. “We like the word international; it gives us a bit of culinary freedom.” Group culinary director Joel Bickford will oversee the venue’s food offering.

While Robinson concedes the industry is going through a “difficult time” and construction costs are skyrocketing (The International is fortunate in that it will be able to repurpose Botswana’s two-year-old kitchen), The Point is taking a long-term position. And with one of the group’s other projects, Fort Denison, delayed until late 2025, The Point had a match-fit opening team to call on.

Robinson’s bullish outlook about the upper slopes of Martin Place is centred on its mix of luxury international retail brands, nearby attractions such as the Theatre Royal and businesses including Macquarie Group.

Sebastien Lutaud, from the incoming Martin 21 restaurant and Marty’s cafe, spent years living in France, observing the impact of train movements on the ebb and flow of the restaurant businesses. “I feel like it will put that part of the city on the map,” Lutaud told the Herald in May.