Cinema giant flags part-sale of Sydney’s George Street complex
Some of the real estate behind one of Sydney’s most popular cinema complexes, Event Cinemas on George Street, is up for sale with its ASX-listed owner EVT keen to channel the proceeds into its hotels division instead.
At a corporate level, the listing of 525 George Street – one of the buildings that make up the overall complex – is part of EVT’s “asset maximisation programme”.
That strategy has been under way for some time – raising $280 million since 2019 as the hospitality company sells off “non-core assets” to generate cash for its growing 85-asset, 12,600-room hotels arm.
But for Sydney’s movie goers, the proposed sale could also bring some disruption, with EVT including what it calls “shovel-ready” plans to redevelop the property into a 43-storey tower with a hotel.
The cinema complex has 16 screens across the 525 and 505 George Street properties – five at 525 and 11 at 505 George Street.
“The full complex will remain operational until the 525 George Street redevelopment commences, after which the 11 screens at 505 George Street will continue to operate,” the company said on Wednesday.
Led by Jane Hastings, EVT has previously flagged its plan to offload 525 George Street. On Wednesday, it announced it had appointed the CBRE agency to market it for sale.
The prime CBD site, complete with plans for a five-star hotel, apartments and an updated cinema, could fetch anywhere between $200 million and $300 million, industry sources said.
Backed by Rich Lister Alan Rydge, EVT runs the Event Cinemas chain along with the hotel portfolio that has brands such as QT and Rydges, and Thredbo ski resort. Its property portfolio is worth about $2.3 billion.
“This proposed sale aligns with EVT’s ongoing strategy to recycle capitaland pursue new growth opportunities,” Hastings said.
For Sydney’s CBD property market, it’s one of the largest mixed-use development sites up for grabs since the 2022 sale of One Circular Quay when Lendlease and Mitsubishi Estate acquired the development for $850 million.
The George Street property is close to Town Hall Station, Chinatown, Darling Harbour, Central Station and the Tech Central Precinct, and stands on a generous 1800-square-metre land parcel.
Nearby is a proposed development by Mirvac and Coombes Property Group, an 81-storey apartment tower which would be Sydney’s tallest residential building at 270 metres high when completed in about 2028. The value of 505 George Street once complete will be about $1 billion.
‘A generational offering’
Michael Simpson, head of hotels and hospitality at CBRE, is managing the sale process with colleagues Ben Wicks and Tim Gibson. Simpson described the 525 George Street complex as a “generational offering”.
“It’s challenging to get residential uses in the CBD. It’s also challenging to get a tower of this kind of size and scale in such a prominent location,” he told The Australian Financial Review.
“There really is a strong desire for people to have inner-city living, whether it’s their first home, and they’re a downsizer, or whether it’s a second or third home.
“But what we haven’t had as much of in Sydney is that co-location of a hotel and the residential and retail on the one tower.”
Dean Dransfield, a transactions and development adviser to hoteliers, said it was a sensible decision for EVT to make the stage-two approved site available to a company whose core business was residential and large-scale property development.
“It’s very consistent with their long-held strategy,” Dransfield said.
“One of the dilemmas we sometimes have in Sydney is that very large sites are in the hands of people who are not experienced property developers, and as a consequence, they take a long time to come up with bad schemes.
“What we want to do is give those sites to capable developers who take a short time to come up with good schemes.”
CBRE’s Wicks and Gibson are also managing the sale, with the international expressions of interest campaign closing on Friday, 25 July.
“Demand for new residential apartments in Sydney’s CBD has bounced back with increased interest from young singles and couples as well as empty nesters looking to downsize from a family home in the suburbs,” Wicks said. “The site has a rich history and is a special place for many Sydneysiders as a popular destination to socialise and watch a movie.”
