Sydney billionaire Justin Hemmes is about to learn what Lady Gaga learnt in 2012: What happens when you cross James Young, the formidable owner of Melbourne’s famed Cherry Bar.
Melbourne City Council this week ratified the $55 million sale to Hemmes of the eight-storey Parkade car park at the eastern end of Little Collins Street, who has pitched turning the concrete car park into a multi-hospitality “wonderland” with restaurants, cafes, bars, a hotel, retail and “sky garden”.
James Young, owner of iconic Melbourne live music venue Cherry Bar, which is two doors down from the Parkade car park sold by City of Melbourne for $55 million this week.Credit: Wayne Taylor
Young foreshadowed the major impacts a years-long construction process could have on his 25-year-old venue, which is two doors down from the car park. Other neighbouring properties include the prestigious men-only Melbourne Club, which is directly opposite.
“I’m accepting of change. I’m happy to see Melbourne grow. The only thing I want is communication,” he said. “During the painful five-year build – if they close Little Collins Street, no one’s coming to Cherry Bar.”
He said he was suspicious about the closed-door meeting deciding on the sale – although such meetings are not uncommon to make commercial decisions at councils – and said he hadn’t been approached about the plan.
“It’s a very bad start in terms of consultation, and I blame the City of Melbourne for that. But if this goes ahead, then I hope that it’s a consultative process,” he said.
Young indicated he could draw on the support of high-profile musicians if the Cherry Bar was badly impacted.
“I’m hoping that the developer will take the time to sit down with the important locals to hear us out. Because at the moment, I’m not waving a red flag marching in the streets and trying to stop this development, but I could do that.
“We might be small, but we are a beloved icon of Melbourne and around the world. Last night we had an Olivia Newton-John book launch followed by The Kooks doing a surprise pop-up gig. We had country and western artist Chris Stapleton’s band play, and then Slipknot came in – this is Cherry Bar on just a Wednesday night,” he said.
An artist’s impression of Hemmes’ plans for 34-60 Little Collins Street.Credit: Merivale
Cherry Bar takes its musicians very seriously, famously turning down Lady Gaga’s request to play there more than a decade ago because the bar already had a local act booked for the night.
Young also pointed out that he’s not the site’s only high-profile neighbour.
The Melbourne Club (at right, behind fence) is directly across the road from the proposed developmentCredit: Wayne Taylor
“I hope that Merivale has done their due diligence,” said Young. “Because I met with the Melbourne Club. Every judge and Kings Counsel [KC] in the country is a member of the Melbourne Club.
“It has [two of the] oldest trees in Melbourne in its forecourt. If they chose to, they could oppose any development at all because of the risk to the trees – the impact of [construction] dust in the air and the shaking of the ground affecting the roots,” he said.
The Melbourne Club was approached for comment but did not respond.
Asked on Wednesday about hostility from neighbours, Lord Mayor Nick Reece said, “on a big project like this, there’ll always be some naysayers” but “the feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive”.
Hemmes said there was “a lot of consultation that we have to do with our residential neighbours [and] our business neighbours” and that “we want to work with everyone to get the best solution, so that’s going to take time”.
Salvation Army Major Brendan Nottle, who for 22 years has run the charity’s Bourke Street soup kitchen and community centre backing onto the car park, said he was “quite excited to see this end of the city revitalised”.
The Salvos have owned the property since 1894 and provide meals, medical services and education for rough sleepers and others in need.
Asked whether there could be social issues between the clientele of Hemmes’ venues and Salvation Army clients, Nottle said, “there could be – but let’s draw on the expertise of a group of people that we don’t connect with very often”.
“We’ve had very preliminary conversations with the new owners around whether we could partner with them, using their kitchens to help us address food insecurity, or could we access some training and potential employment in hospitality?” he said. “There’s definitely an openness from both parties.
“The old saying is ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’,” he said.
Jason Marriner, of the Marriner Group, which operates the nearby Regent, Princess and Comedy theatres and the Forum, said Hemmes’ plans looked “extraordinary in vision”.
“Obviously losing car parks is not ideal in the short term, but invariably as cities grow we have to think about the way we access the city,” he said.
“It is exciting for the city that there is vision and investment. It shows that Melbourne is moving forward as a destination. The top end of Bourke Street has been in neglect for such a long period of time.”
Merivale has no planning approval for the development, but on Wednesday Reece said the council was a “city of Yes”.
On Thursday The Age revealed Councillor Owen Guest – who was elected to the council in October as the endorsed Liberal candidate and is the head of the council’s finance, governance and risk committee – was one of three councillors to vote against the sale over concerns an income-earning asset had been sold “for a song” for “pet projects” while council debt is climbing.
With Cara Waters