Sydney’s Event Cinemas site to make way for 150m skyscraper
The listed Event Hospitality & Entertainment has kicked off its ambitious development pipeline by lodging plans for a 41-storey mixed-use tower in George St in Sydney’s central business district.
The company has unveiled a scheme to demolish part of the existing 525 George St movie complex and replace it with a major hotel and residential development that will include new cinemas.
The new 150m-high mixed-use building will also include a retail podium and cost $222 million, according to council documents that show the area will experience a mini-boom.
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Event Hospitality’s building will sit beside a huge tower planned at the adjoining property at 505 George Street, where Mirvac has won concept approval for an 80-storey tower.
That $1 billion scheme would be one of Sydney’s tallest residential buildings at 270m and Event Hospitality’s complex would also be worth hundreds of millions when finished.
It is not yet clear whether the groups will co-ordinate their plans although Mirvac is more advanced and last July the developer and partner Coombes Property unveiled a design by Germany’s Ingenhoven and local group Architectus.
The Event Hospitality site has two elements: the southern portion of the existing movie complex, which has 17 cinemas, and another building integrated with Mirvac’s property.
Event Hospitality is being advised by Candalepas Associates and it is seeking to demolish the existing building and to build a new tower on the corner of George Street, Kent Street and Albion Place.
There would be 12 storeys of luxury residential apartments in levels 29–40 and 22 storeys would go to a new hotel, possibly a QT, which Event runs.
New cinemas, conference rooms and pool facilities are planned for a podium, with shops on the ground floor, and the rooftop given to open space. Five basement levels would include parking and services.
Event Hospitality, which has hotels, cinemas and resorts in Australia, New Zealand and Germany, last year also flagged plans for another George Street tower.
It wants to redevelop properties it bought for $117m in 2017 at 458-472 George Street, integrating these with the State Theatre and Gowings buildings and extending the QT Sydney hotel.
The group could do a mixed-use project including shops, adding rooms and conference and events facilities to the QT hotel, as well as a commercial tower.
Event hospitality chairman Alan Rydge first outlined the moves at the group’s annual general meeting last year but lodging the plans for 525 George St indicates the company is keen to get started.
The company has amassed a property portfolio with a fair value of about $2 billion, which favourably compares to the book value of $1.2 billion.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
