Mystery surrounds new future of St Kilda’s Greyhound Hotel site

The sad saga of the site of St Kilda’s much-loved-but-lost Greyhound Hotel has entered a new phase with the search for its next owner.

Ironically, “boutique hotel developers” have shown interest in the razed site where the iconic drag and LGBTIQ venue stood before a previous owner demolished it.

CBRE has been appointed by failed developer Steller’s receiver and manager KordaMentha to run the sales campaign culminating in a mortgagee auction on November 22.

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Steller bought the 911sqm corner site at 1 Brighton Rd for $7.5 million in 2017 and had planned to develop the site, flattened by its owner before that, before it collapsed.

Many would have had great nights start and finish walking through those doors. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

Three street frontages, permit approval for a seven-level building — including 34 apartments and three shops — and commercial-one zoning opposite St Kilda Town Hall are the attractions, with potential for a developer to secure it for less than it fetched in 2017.

CBRE’s Mark Wizel told the Herald Sun there had been “strong interest” in the site from a range of developers and expected it to attract offers “in excess of $5 million”.

Some interested parties will “continue to progress” the vision outlined in the approved permits, while other interest has come from “boutique hotel developers, as well as some developers looking at a built-to-rent type product and commercial office builders”.

“I think the buyer would definitely use the envelope for the seven-level building with apartments and shops on the ground floor … but they might change it from apartments to hotel rooms or from apartments to offices,” he says.

An artist’s impression of a proposed eight-storey apartment complex on the site.

The 163-year-old pub was destroyed despite campaigns to save it, including a bid for heritage protection that failed to persuade Planning Minister Richard Wynne.

Greyhound regular Julie Marrington told Port Phillip Leader in 2017 she made four trips to the site to scavenge for bricks to share among its locals following its demolition.

“It meant so many things to so many different people for all sorts of reasons — for many it was our lounge room,” she said.

“Everybody was exceptionally sad when it was torn down.

“That’s more than 160 years worth of history just gone.”

The Art Deco-style facade of the building was constructed over the original in the late 1930s, which later disqualified the venue from heritage listing.

Julie Marrington with a brick from the demolition of the Greyhound Hotel. Picture: Hamish Blair

Rebranded as GH in its later years, the hotel was home to drag shows and drag bingo; it was also a nightclub.

Sorrento’s iconic Continental Hotel is also in limbo after Steller’s collapse, while a Rosebud property owned by the failed developer sold for $2.35 million less than it was bought for.

Mark Wizel shares the former Greyhound Hotel site listing with other CBRE Victorian development site sales team members Julian White, David Minty and Chao Zhang.

“The site’s permit will be a key selling point as will the flexible zoning, which allows for a variety of end uses,” White says.

“The location will be another drawcard, with the property situated in walking distance of major retail hubs and public transport.

This article from The Herald Sun originally appeared as “Greyhound Hotel, St Kilda: what will be built on development site?”.