Sydney hotel to become luxury unit tower as JDH Capital exits

After years of delays the Sydney harbourside hotel Sir Stamford is expected to be redeveloped as entrepreneurs bet on the top end of the apartment market.

The Sir Stamford at Circular Quay in Sydney has been sold for $265m

Non-bank lender and developer Metrics Capital Partners has bought the historic Sir Stamford Hotel at Sydney’s Circular Quay, paying $265m to redevelop the site into luxury apartments.

The hotel was sold by embattled developer Jean-Dominque Huynh in late 2024 in an under-the-radar deal in which the property developer’s companies made a profitable exit.

The move comes as combination of rising construction prices and high rates puts even the country’s premium projects under pressure and lenders are taking control of key assets.

Mr Huynh is understood to have exited for $265m – showing a jump in the value of the property it picked up two years earlier for $210m.

The Sir Stamford at Circular Quay in Sydney

The dowager hotel is now under the control of Macquarie Street Developments Pty Ltd, which is part of the wider Metrics empire. The move is a sign of Metrics’ capacity to buy properties as well as act as a lender.

It also clears the way for the hotel’s redevelopment, given it is not taking bookings beyond April.

Metrics’ funds now own the site and they think that together with a separate site overlooking Hyde Park which they acquired with Billbergia at 338 Pitt Street, they will have two of the best projects in the Sydney CBD.

Metrics last month emerged as a joint venture partner on the other multibillion-dollar luxury apartment and hotel project to be undertaken by Billbergia that will overlook Hyde Park.

Metrics said it planned to develop the latest property in line with the proposed DA and it was “working with our partners to develop the site”.

JDH Capital won approval for a $183m makeover of the Sir Stamford Hotel redevelopment and the site now carries approval for 69 apartments over 10 planned residential levels.

Jean-Dominque Huynh’s companies are claimed to owe almost $300m on the Nautique project in Rushcutters Bay, Sydney.

For the under-pressure Mr Huynh, the mooted price is a $55m uplift from when he purchased the Sir Stamford Hotel, for just over $210m from Singaporean magnate CK Ow, who held the hotel via the Singapore-listed Stamford Land Corporation.

The hotel, overlooking the Royal Botanic Gardens, sits adjacent to Circular Quay and the Sydney Opera House, is partly housed in a distinctive heritage building and was once a luxurious Ritz-Carlton.

Despite the sale of the Circular Quay property, Mr Huynh’s companies face claims of owing almost $300m on his Nautique apartment development at the gateway to Sydney’s eastern suburbs following the appointment of receivers by Metrics just before Christmas, according to Australian Securities and Investments Commission documents.

A report filed by receiver Costa Nicodemou of Newpoint Advisory, which was appointed by Metrics to 100 Bayswater Pty Ltd, a company associated with Mr Huynh’s JDH Capital, the developer of the Nautique apartments, show

Receiver to 100 Bayswater Pty Ltd, Mr Nicodemou, a partner at Newpoint Advisory, did not return The Australian’s call on Wednesday.