This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
DEVELOPER and builder Hickory is looking for an investment partner or buyer for its $350 million redevelopment of a Melbourne CBD corner previously home to an infamous strip club.
Hickory obtained approval last year for a 21-storey office tower on the 1,756 sqm site at 580 Lonsdale Street, on the corner of King Street. The site was where the Kilkenny Inn was built in 1915 and was the long-term home to strip club Goldfingers, which closed during the pandemic, and was damaged by fire in Maty last year.
As well as 24,000 sqm of offices, the plans, developed with Cox Architecture, also include 623 sqm of ground floor and first floor retail and three levels of basement parking, while the pub’s façade would be restored and interior modernised.
Demolition works have been completed on the site.
The site’s flexible zoning allows for multiple uses within various asset classes, including residential, student accommodation and hotel.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Oliver Hay is leading the campaign for 580 Lonsdale Street and believes it will generate significant competition in the current office market and all potential asset classes.
“We are entering a unique time in the Melbourne CBD with the supply of developable land becoming increasingly tight, coupled with tightening planning controls, as time goes on corner sites of this scale will become virtually non-existent,” he said.
“Given the amenity attributes in this location as well our current population growth rate and housing undersupply, we expect strong interest from luxury residential and multi-family sectors as well as tourism and commercial sectors.”
Hickory CEO Michael Argyrou sees the company’s involvement with the revitalisation of the vicinity as ongoing, with projects such as 570 Little Bourke Street in joint venture partnership with Maxcap and Argo Group, ICD Property’s Aspire tower at 299 King Street, and Melbourne’s first Meriton Suites Hotel at 140 King Street underway.
“We see the vision of transforming this pocket of Melbourne’s CBD and are pleased to be part of this precinct’s vibrant evolution, creating better places for future communities,” he said.
The 580 Lonsdale Street site was owned by United Petroleum founders Eddie Hirsch and Avi Silver until 2019, when they quietly offloaded the site to Hickory Group for about $50 million.
Goldfingers was opened from the building in 1997 by Raymond “Lord of the Lap Dance” Bartlett, and operated under his watch until his death in 2013. His daughter Sharon took on the business. It closed in late 2020.
