Palm Cove bar: Controversial rooftop tavern above Sarayi Boutique Hotel approved

A new rooftop bar on the Palm Cove waterfront is almost ready to start pouring beers — but only if a last-ditch effort to shut it down does not succeed.

A NEW rooftop bar on the Palm Cove waterfront is almost ready to start pouring beers, but only if a last-ditch effort to shut it down does not succeed.

Sarayi Boutique Hotel owner Mark Biancotti received approval for Double Island Tavern from Cairns Regional Council early last year.

The council then did a ­bizarre about-face and wrote to the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation in a bid to have its liquor licence rejected.

About 10 residents and business owners also lodged objections, but the application has since been approved.

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The rooftop bar is now provisionally licensed to operate until 10pm every night and the downstairs tavern until midnight, which has appalled neighbouring businesses.

Reef House co-owner Malcolm Bean is rallying the troops for a final challenge in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Opponents have until February 4 to lodge their appeals.

“If it goes ahead, we will have to close the hotel,” he said. “It will destroy our business very swiftly.

“We’ve already had problems previous times when there have been functions on the rooftop next door, with customers checking out or having to move to the other side of the hotel.

“Everybody in Palm Cove is in bed or back on their balcony by 9pm.It’s not just the immediate demise of us, it’s the further demise of the whole village feel and its way of operating.”

The owners of the Sarayi Boutique Hotel in Port Douglas plan to open a new rooftop bar. Picture: Supplied

Mr Biancotti said he had been there three years longer than Mr Bean. He said rooftop functions had been running for the past decade and the Reef House’s business had gone from strength to strength.

Council approval, an independent acoustics report saying he complied, and a provisional liquor licence with stringent conditions were on his side.

Mr Biancotti, who also co-owns PK’s Jungle Village in Cape Tribulation, said the biggest change was that he was now allowed to serve alcohol without food. 

The owners of the Sarayi Boutique Hotel in Port Douglas previously had development approvals to build an eight-storey hotel tower to the rear of the main existing building. That has now been scaled back to six storeys. Picture: Supplied

“I’ve been closed for 19 months waiting for this approval – it hasn’t just been a tick and flick,” he said.

“Now I’ve just got to fit the place out. It’s the same as what the surf club’s got and what Palm Cove Tavern has.

“I’m not doing anything underhanded or anything outside the law. I’m only doing something council and liquor licensing have said I can do.”

Mr Biancotti has long-term plans to build a tower behind the existing Sarayi Boutique Hotel. This eight-storey structure was the original plan, although it is understood to have since been downgraded to six storeys. Picture: Supplied

Both parties agreed Cairns Regional Council had added to the confusion by trying to block a liquor licence for a bar it had already approved.

“Originally the application got planning approval through the delegation process, which was crazy because it meant it didn’t go to the council or mayor,” Mr Bean said. “It just went to the planning department and got rubber-stamped.”

Mr Biancotti also has approvals for a six-storey tower to be built at the back of his ­existing hotel — although he has no immediate plans to start work.

Originally published as Palm Cove bar: Controversial rooftop tavern above Sarayi Boutique Hotel approved