Frankston’s Ambassador hotel chapel up for sale with $1.25m+ asking price, restaurateurs circling
51/325 Nepean Highway, Frankston, is better known as the chapel of the former Ambassador hotel that had a concerning reputation before the pandemic — but appears to have reached a turning point.
A landmark Frankston wedding chapel abandoned for years as neighbouring apartments turned into drug dens could be set for a more than $1m glow up as a restaurant.
Late last year the chapel of the former Ambassador Hotel was listed for sale with a $1.25m-$1.375m asking price by the evangelistic Turning Point church, which bought it in 2021.
Early interest has come from local restaurateurs, despite the fact the once notorious address was rated Victoria’s most dangerous by apartment owners in 2017 — a time when paramedics refused to go there without a police escort.
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Studio apartments among the 110 former hotel rooms behind the chapel were still selling for less than $100,000 last year, but the property is across the Nepean Highway from a beachfront segment of the suburb where homes command multimillion-dollar prices.
The chapel was listed by Hall and Partners First National Dandenong’s Vincent Golf just before Christmas, with multiple parties showing interest from across Victoria.
Mr Golf said there was particularly strong interest from bay-area locals considering converting it into a restaurant.
It is also possible the property could be leased out for $65,000 a year, with scope for medical, dental or allied health operations to work within the building.
The chapel’s landmark stained glass windows provide a striking backdrop to its cafe.
The address has a number of spacious rooms that could suit for functions, or for medical, dental or allied health use.
“Frankston is a moving and shaking place, there’s a lot of very large projects on foot out there and it is slowly creeping up,” Mr Golf said.
“And this is a remarkable building. The lead lighting is glorious, and it presents very well. Plus there are some large spaces in there.”
The former chapel is set on about 500sq m of land and comes with three powder rooms, a kitchen and carparking for up to 10 vehicles.
Most recently it has been run as a social enterprise cafe by Wildpath, a faith group, who had been delivering food hampers to Ambassador residents prior to Covid.
It is understood to have sat abandoned for a number of years prior, at about the same time the 110 once glamorous hotel rooms turned affordable short-stay rentals hosted drug addicts and people recently released from prison.
They were dubbed the state’s most dangerous address by owners in 2017. but sales data show the chapel’s value is climbing.
The property has been renewed by its current faith-based owners and tenants.
Multiple workspaces feature around the property.
The property is only a short distance from the beach on the other side of Long Island.
It last sold for $750,000 in 2021, but was worth just $462,000 when it changed hands in 2017 — despite selling for $440,000 in 2009.
The location is in the midst of a rebrand, with a website for the address now dubbing it 325 Nepean Highway as owners look to move on from its notorious past.
FosterFroling Real Estate founder Adrian Foster sold a number of apartments in the complex last year, and said past efforts to sell the chapel had yielded proposals for it to be turned into a strip club — but that the once maligned pocket had changed dramatically since the pandemic.
“The best thing that has happened to Frankston is Covid, the fact that people can work from home now — that’s helped a lot of people come further out to it,” Mr Foster said.
“And I have never had so many owner occupier buyers for the Ambassador.”
The cafe is currently run by Wildpath as a social enterprise.
Substantial covered carparking is on offer at the property.
The agent added that while local bylaws meant owners couldn’t use the apartments as their primary place of residence, the rise in owner occupiers in the building had given it a boost.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, it has moved on from its past,” Mr Foster said.
“Two owners who were leasing to some not great people have now moved on. And now there are people in there who care. The heart is coming back into the Ambassador.”
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