Sam Arnaout’s Iris Capital is building on successes for the new year, chasing plans for a $70 million development on the site of the Kingswood Hotel and a brand-new pub for Sydney’s upper north shore.
Plans for 180 Great Western Highway, Kingswood (along with 26 Roger Street) were lodged with Penrith Council in December, with estimated cost of works at $68,650,725.
This involves demolition of the existing structure and staged construction of a mixed-use commercial and residential development including an eight-storey building on the Great Western Highway, and a six-storey building on Rodgers Street.
Plans proffer the temporary relocation of the existing Kingswood Hotel to Roger Street, before moving to a new permanent purpose-built space when the Great Western Highway building is complete. The pub will occupy street level, beneath residential apartments and above three levels of parking.
Replacing the original Kingswood Hotel, built in 1953, the new space will offer a bistro, sports bar, and VIP gaming lounge.
Separately, capitalising on its $180 million deal to buy the Ibis hotel portfolio in Australia, Iris lodged a DA with Hornsby Council in October through subsidiary Iris Hotels Thornleigh Property P/L, for expansion of its Ibis Hotel site on Pennant Hills Road.
The project plans to expand the venue to include a pub, to be named the Thornleigh Tavern, with capacity for up to 200 patrons.
Estimated cost of the works is $7,532,852 and proposes rebuilding sections of the hotel to make way for new features, such as a bistro seating up to 90 people, sports bar for 42 patrons, smoking bar for 38-pax and VIP lounge with full complement of 30 gaming machines, plus 72 car parking spaces.
The 105-room Ibis Hotel would continue operations beside the new pub.
Plans to Hornsby Council cite social benefits for the community, which is home to eight and a half thousand people (2016 Census) and despite having been settled since the 1830s has no pub. The nearest licensed hotel is the Hotel Pennant Hills, around two kilometres south-west, down Pennant Hills Road.
“It also provides an improved opportunity for social interaction in an area that is otherwise limited of such opportunities, particularly for those employed in the area,” suggests the submission.
Thornleigh is 22 kilometres north-west of the Sydney CBD, in the Hornsby LGA. It is also the source of the Lane Cove River.
Plans to Council propose trade from 7am to midnight (Mon-Sat) and 10pm Sundays with limited impact on adjoining structures and businesses, which can be mitigated through the plan of management.
It is currently under assessment by Hornsby Council.
Iris was unable to be contacted for comment on either pending development prior to publication.
