Heavy hitters buy celebrity enclave

The sale of Sydney’s landmark InterContinental Hotel Double Bay Hotel is understood to have been concluded at a price of more than $210m.

Guests relaxing by the rooftop pool at the InterContinental Hotel, Double Bay.

The sale of Sydney’s landmark InterContinental Hotel Double Bay Hotel is understood to have been concluded at a price of more than $210m with the powerful consortium of buyers including Allen Linz, Eduard Litver and relative newcomer to the property game United Cinemas chief executive Sam Mustaca.

As revealed by The Weekend Australian on Saturday, the long-running negotiations were concluded on Monday, paving the way for the 140-room hotel dominating Double Bay’s Cross Street to be converted into a luxe apartment block.

The hotel hit the market earlier this year with an asking price of around $240m through marketing agents CBRE and Colliers.

In its glory days, the once world-­famous hotel hosted celebrities such as Princess Diana. A year later, in 1997, rock star Michael Hutchence was found dead in one of the hotel’s suites. The hotel hosted Elton John and Madonna when it was then known as the Ritz-Carlton.

The InterContinental Hotel in Double Bay. Picture: Christian Gilles

Mr Linz of Rebel Property Group and Mr Litver of Capit.el Capit.el Group created development history in Sydney’s eastern suburbs with the development of the $450m Pacific Bondi complex a few years ago. They have since gone on to develop several boutique complexes.

The InterContinental Hotel was sold on Monday after the owners, Melbourne developer Paul Fridman, and Sydney-based Bilal El-Cheikh, of Piety Group, became embroiled in a legal dispute over their stalled efforts to redevelop the hotel having purchased it for $178m in 2021.

Mr Linz, has registered a new company known as Rebel Double Bay.

In 2017, the hotel was bought by Chinese multinationals for about $140m. The two buyers – Shanghai United Real Estate and Zobon Real Estate Group – were among China’s largest consortiums to forge into Australian property and the purchase sparked hopes of a large-scale overhaul. Shanghai United, set up by 10 of China’s top property firms, including Zobon, said at the time it had $2bn to spend over the next five years in Australia, but its interest in the market faded as the apartment boom ended. It bought the hotel from Singapore’s Royal Group Holdings, which ploughed about $100m into buying and refurbishing the Double Bay hotel and reopened it after it was shuttered. The Royal Group bought the former Ritz-Carlton Hotel for almost $60m in 2013, after a controversial period when it was owned by the failed Ashington Group and, later, by Scarborough Pacific Group, which was backed by British property tycoon Kevin McCabe and Victoria’s Alter family.