INVESTORS are pouring cash into Bayswater Road, Potts Point, at a rapid rate, moving the address into the spotlight as the place to be seen.
Having been in the shadow of the better-known Darlinghurst Road and Macleay Street, this part of the area on the Kings Cross-Potts Point boundary is now the target of developers, restaurateurs and new residential dwellers.
In the past five months, more than $100 million worth of sales have been completed, from smaller retail/food shops to the Mansions Hotel and the major redevelopment of the Hampton Hotel. The two hotels, once completed, will add more than 160 new apartments to Bayswater Road within the next 12 to 18 months.
Further changing the demographics will be the move by Westfield from its corporate headquarters at 100 William Street – the group will keep the top floor to maintain its signage rights – to the new 85 Castlereagh Street office tower. That will trigger an upgrade of the older block, which will bring a new set of office workers into the area.
Expressions of interest closed yesterday for the property on the corner of Bayswater and Darlinghurst roads, on a long-term lease to Fitness First. The property, said to be worth up to $10 million, is being sold through Jones Lang LaSalle.
Also on the market is 28 Bayswater Road. It is being sold as freehold property but its zoned mixed use.
The managing director of City Commercial, Warren Duncan, said the building had a retail site on the ground floor, with commercial offices over three levels. The retail area has already been leased to a new Mexican eatery.
Mr. Duncan said a dual street frontage building such as 28 Bayswater Road was a rare offering in such a prime location. “Potts Point is said to be the most densely populated area in Australia and most of the commercial retail offerings are strata title,” he said. “All of Bayswater Road is undergoing a facelift, with the bars, restaurants, office suites and upmarket apartments all replacing the existing older buildings.”
Some changes have already occurred. The former Bayswater Brasserie, once the party palace for some of Kings Cross’s infamous characters, is now the revamped Smiths on Bayswater, owned by Kingsley Smith. Directly opposite, at 33 Bayswater Road, is the popular Hugos and a new 450-square-metre upmarket Portuguese-style restaurant called Concrete Blonde, opening next month.
At 17 Bayswater Road, next to 33 Bayswater Road, the Barclay Hotel has been newly refitted as a boutique hotel and is called the Bayswater. Closer to the city end of the street, at 9-15 Bayswater Road, is the Hampton Hotel, which is being converted into 126 apartments. Late last year, 113 apartments sold within 48 hours.
The retail component of the Hampton development will have upmarket restaurants with a wine bar offering and will be completed by the end of September.
Another landmark, across from the Hampton, is 2-14 Bayswater Road, known as Minton House.
Mr. Duncan sold 15 retail shops under the building during an eighth-month period last year. They went for a combined $11 million to private local and interstate investors. The Mansions Hotel, recently bought by the Toga group, will be redeveloped into apartments.
