Another bar and restaurant? Justin Hemmes has snapped up a former Woolworths Metro in a beautiful heritage building in Sydney’s CBD, paying $6.8m at auction.
The Merivale chief was there doing the bidding himself on Thursday morning for Shop 1, York St at auctioneer Damien Cooley’s rooms, instantly countering his opponent’s $6.3m opening bid with $100k more.
The pair exchanged several more $100k bids — with Hemmes always looking the winner with his fast and furious bids — before Cooley slammed the gavel down in his favour.
The real commercial ad cites the shop, currently owned by Woolworths, is in a “beautiful, refined heritage-listed building with prime retail corner positioning” and that it’s “just one of four comparable properties to be offered in the last 15 years”.
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The Colliers sales agent, Callum Cooke, said Hemmes, whose firm already owns about 100 pubs, hotels and eateries around Australia, hadn’t decided what to do with the 314 sqm ground-floor space.
“But he thought it was a good corner position and that it was quite a good price,” Cooke said.
Cooke’s colleague, Joseph Lin who is the national director, Asia Markets for Colliers, thought the space would make a good restaurant.
The price is understood to have been above the reserve.
The shop is in the same city block as Merivale’s Hotel CBD and just a short walk from his Ivy precinct in George St.
Subject to council approval, there’s nothing to stop the York St site being converted into a bar and restaurant space.
Although there are currently no cooking facilities, the realcommercial ad specifies it has an “adaptable floor place allowing a variety of ‘value-add’ strategies”; a functional cool-room and a well-maintained ventilation system.
It also offers a 13m street frontage to York & Barrack St.
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Originally published as Justin Hemmes snaps up former Woolworths Metro in Sydney’s York St for $6.8m
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