Ballarat’s Bluestone nightclub for sale with $1m price cut

The historic home of Ballarat’s top-shelf nightclub has been served up to the market for a discount price.

The refurbished three-storey building at 101-103 Mair St — which started its life as Pratts Warehouse in 1869 and has operated as The Bluestone since 2010 — has a $3.5 million asking price.

It’s been relisted with Colliers International, following a six-month stint on the market with another agency and $4.5 million expectations that failed to net a sale.

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But the popular nightspot isn’t calling last drinks, having signed a long-term lease worth $315,000 per year.

Colliers agent Andrew Lewis says the original owners of The Bluestone had recently sold the nightclub business to their managing group in a “management buyout” and are now aiming to offload the building as a “pure investment”.

Bluestone will continue to lease the building.

Bluestone has been operating out of the building since 2010.

“It’s a really good building — it’s trading well at a high 8.5 per cent return. It’s pretty hard to get that money anywhere,” Lewis says.

“It’s the nightclub to go to (in Ballarat).”

The venue is licensed to host 660 people across its three levels.

The basement and ground floor both features bars and dancefloors, while the later flows out to a beer garden.

Upstairs is a lounge function room with a marble bar.

CoreLogic records show the property last changed hands in 2009 for $350,845.

The building is historically significant to Ballarat.

Bluestone is Ballarat’s leading nightclub, selling agent Andrew Lewis says.

It then underwent a $3 million revamp, according to 2010 article from the local newspaper.

The building is considered historically significant to Ballarat as a “rare example of a two-storey masonry warehouse of the mid-19th century”, according to the Victorian Heritage Database.

“Pratt’s Warehouse is one of the remaining examples of a rough-faced masonry warehouse in Victoria,” the database said.

Artists David and Yuge Bromley are seeking about $3 million for the site of quirky watering hole The Pub With Two Names, just 300m down the road at 323-331 Mair St.

This article from The Herald Sun originally appeared as “Bluestone Ballarat: heritage building housing top nightclub for sale”.