Hotelier Makes $111m Plans for Historic Coogee Pub

The Coogee Bay Hotel will soon have 60 apartments, an eat-street and supermarket if $111.7-million plans are approved by the Randwick City Council.

The application to build a six-storey, shop-top development was lodged for 253 Coogee Bay Road and 212 Arden Street near Sydney’s coastal walkway.

Cinc Hotels manager Christopher Cheung purchased the property in 1991 said the last application on the site was made a decade ago.

“We’ve got a beautiful little precinct here and it’s getting a bit tired and we have to keep up with the times,” he said.

“The demographic in Randwick and in particular Coogee has evolved in the last 30 years we’ve been here.

“The pub market is really hot at the moment, we had an offer two or three years ago.”

Chueng said the lockdown proved them with the time needed to come up with plans for the 8501sq m site.

The mixed-use development designed by Fender Katsalidis Architects included a two lot subdivision separating the hotel from the retail and residential offering.

Five-storeys of apartments would be configured in a u-shape around a swimming pool behind the hotel.

There would also be a pedestrian link from Arden Street to Coogee Bay Road creating and eat street and access to eight retail tenancies and a small-format supermarket.

Ten new hotel rooms would be added to the heritage-listed Coogee Bay Hotel and the 19 existing rooms would be refurbished while the beer garden and bar would be preserved.

“The proposed design respects the heritage components of the site and acknowledges the sense of identity Coogee Bay Hotel presents to the community, present and past,” the architectural statement said.

“The vision is to upgrade an existing heritage institution by providing opportunities and amenities for the community while enhancing the identity of the area.”

The Coogee Bay Hotel was first built in 1855 while the current building's exterior dates to the 1920s.