Fitzroy’s Brooklyn Arts Hotel to become grand home

Filmmaker and artist Maggie Fooke has reeled in a buyer for the Fitzroy mansion she ran as the Brooklyn Arts Hotel.

Two bidders pushed 50 George St a whopping $125,000 past reserve to a $4.625 million sale at auction on September 14, Nelson Alexander Fitzroy director Arch Staver says.

The contenders both intended to transform the landmark building into a house.

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“It’ll need a fair investment, but it will be well worth it,” Staver says.

Maggie Fooke ran the Brooklyn Arts Hotel from the property.

The property attracted two bidders at auction.

Staver previously told the Herald Sun the property had the potential to become “one of Fitzroy’s grandest homes”, and even “one of the very best in the inner city”.

It was built in 1865, later extended in Gothic ecclesiastical style by New York entrepreneur Joseph Levy, and once functioned as a boarding house.

It had housed Ms Fooke’s European-style boutique hotel from since about 2005, when CoreLogic records show the 12-bedroom property on a 460sq m block sold for $1.5 million.

The historic property will be transformed into a home.

The building featured 12 bedrooms.

Staver teased that it had hosted “a number of well-known people within the theatre, TV and arts scenes” over the years.

He says Fooke was “out on a pilgrimage looking for a new place”, potentially in Hobart or Castlemaine.

She previously owned Castlemaine landmarks the 1854 Theatre Royal and 1923 mansion Green Gables.

The lush garden.

The buyer was originally from Fitzroy, but had been living in Western Australia. Staver says the property will become their Melbourne base.

Its selling points included two street frontages, period features, and a position on the East Melbourne border, walking distance from the CBD and MCG.

This article from The Herald Sun originally appeared as “Brooklyn Arts Hotel: Maggie Fooke sells Fitzroy property at auction”.