JDH Capital swoops on Vibe Rushcutters Bay in $120m play

The developer of Sydney‘s famed Sirius Building at Circular Quay is making a new luxury harbourside play

The Vibe Hotel in Sydney’s waterfront suburb Rushcutters Bay is the subject of a potential offer worth some $120m.

JDH Capital, the low-profile group behind the redevelopment of Sydney’s famous Sirius Building, is targeting a new harbourside property play and is in talks to buy the Vibe Hotel in Rush­cutters Bay for about $120m.

The move would significantly expand the once unknown developer’s pipeline of apartments and signals a surge in the top end of Sydney’s luxury unit market.

Developers are jockeying for position as they bet the dramatic rise in mansion prices will spill over into high-end apartment sales in the city’s wealthy eastern suburbs.

The market has already been jolted by record-breaking sales in the Barangaroo precinct in both Lendlease’s luxury towers and in James Packer’s $2.2bn Crown ­Resorts complex, where there has been a series of high priced settlements by local and inter­national buyers.

This dynamic is supercharging the value of hotels that can be converted into apartments, with the momentum to flip sites gathering pace.

Just last month, Melbourne-based developer Fridcorp teamed with Piety Group to buy the Intercontinental Hotel in Double Bay from Chinese company Shanghai United for about $178m, and it could look to remake it as Louis Vuitton-branded project.

The Vibe is well positioned to capitalise on the city’s insatiable demand for luxury apartments and could be overhauled in a move that would see the 258 rooms replaced by apartments.

Only moments from the shoreline, Vibe Hotel Rushcutters Bay is near Sydney’s CBD and inner suburbs, as well as a short drive from the city’s iconic Bondi Beach. The area sports galleries, boutique shopping and an array of restaurants, as well as ­designer fashion in the upmarket outlets of Double Bay.

The iconic Sirius Building on the Sydney harbourfront.

The hotel is owned by RHS Hotel Investments, a syndicate of Greg Shand’s Barana Group and Toga, which a decade ago toyed with plans to spend about $39m on turning the hotel into apartments. The syndicate picked up the former Rushcutters Harbourside Hotel for $42.75m in 2003.

Under their dumped scheme they had planned about 138 apartments, and an eighth floor was to be added. But the plans were not pursued and Toga declined to comment on the latest sale talks.

JDH Capital is backed by former Macquarie Group executive Jean-Dominique Huynh and is planning 76 apartments positioned at the foot of the Harbour Bridge and overlooking Circular Quay and the Opera House after buying the brutalist style Sirius Building for $150m in 2019.

On offer in the former public housing block are one, two, three and four-bedroom apartments, with some penthouses replete with private swimming pools.

The company declined to comment on the Vibe Hotel talks, as did agent CBRE executive chairman Justin Brown.

Other players are also getting in on the suburban unit boom. Developer Danny Avidan is jointly buying one of the best sites on New South Head Road for an exclusive boutique complex.

The site, opposite the prestigious Cranbrook School in Point Piper, is being purchased by his Dare Property Group, together with private developer Fortis.

The site traded for $41m and will be transformed into a $120m project named Piper House, which will have 18 luxury homes

The transaction was negotiated by Ben Stewart of CBRE.