Hotel plan for CBD landmark

A FIVE-star hotel has been slated for Geelong’s Ryrie St Markets after the sale of the city landmark.

A consortium of Melbourne buyers secured the former market in a confidential multimillion dollar deal, L & D Real Estate director Varun Sharma said.

Mr Sharma said the value of the sale would not be disclosed. The property was listed with $4.5 million price hopes when it previously hit the market in 2017.

The consortium wants to build a five-star hotel on the site, retaining the heritageprotected facade, he said.

He said it was hoped planning approval for the largescale development would occur soon, once plans had been finalised and submitted to Geelong council.

“They want to bring a fivestar hotel there,” Mr Sharma said. “They want to work with the council now, start working with the council from next week and hopefully they will get approval and a permit from the council in 3-6 months and then they are ready to go.”

Mr Sharma said his agency was engaged to sell the property last month.

“The vendor who owned d the property came to us last st month and we got an oppor- tunity to sell it as soon as poss- ible and we sold it within 28 8 days,” he said.

“It’s a beautiful-looking building, rich in heritage and there’s opportunity for the new development to keep the facade and do a multi-level development due to its large 1200sq m size.”

The market building’s facade is protected by a heritage overlay, while the Activity Centre zoning requires a permit to build a hotel on that site.

Permission is also needed to construct a building more than 25m high as the site lies within a flight path to the emergency helipad at University Hospital Geelong.