The Imperial Hotel - Still Closed A Year Later

Feature, By Joal, 4th September, 2008

Closing its doors in September 2007, the Imperial Hotel has been shut for an entire year now, and while some local residents are frustrated with delays, others couldn’t be happier. In the meantime, local nightlife continues to stagnate.

The hotel and local residents opposed to the establishment’s renovations have met at a number of City of Sydney Council meetings to discuss proposed patron allowances. Imperial owner Shadd Danesi wants a patron increase from 306 to 788 people.

“It’s just ridiculous,” says local resident of eight years Julie Moffat. With the initial request knocked-back by council Moffat says a revised development application appeared on the Hotel’s front door on Friday and that it didn’t look to be any different from Danesi’s first application.

City of Sydney council voted to have Danesi’s initial development application approved in June, but with certain conditions. Legal patronage would only be increased to 518 people, 270 less than requested, and a proposed ‘giant stiletto’ on top of the 1930s heritage listed building would not be allowed.

“Council denied the [patron] increase and now he’s just applied again… if he doesn’t get what he wants he’ll just go to the Land & Environment Court,” says Moffat from outside her Erskineville Road home. Moffat’s house and the hotel share the same strip of Erskineville Road, and a ruling in favour of Danesi from the Land & Environment Court cannot be overturned by local council.

Asked if she had any problems with patrons of the hotel when it was open, Moffat says, “every week.” She says she understands that people like going to the hotel, but her problem is the twenty four hour licensing agreement, “and I’ve told [Mr. Danesi] that,” she says.

City of Sydney Heritage & Urban Design specialists suggested the Imperial’s history be incorporated in some way across its shop front, rather than through a two-and-a-half metre high stiletto. Danesi however, lodged a new application on August 16 for both the patron increase and the giant stiletto atop his building.

“Maybe I should incorporate the history of the terrible struggle the Imperial has had with the City of Sydney into the shop front?” says Danesi.

Asked why he reapplied for development approval, Danesi says he believes the council’s decision was based on mis-information. He indicated that the stiletto was not signage, but artwork, and represented the importance of the GLBTI culture in the community. “It’s an exact replica of the stiletto in the film Priscilla: Queen of the Desert and [the hotel] is known the world over.”

Danesi also says that the patron limit he is requesting provides more space per person than the Master Builders Association of Australia guidelines allow.

“If these restrictions are placed on us, we will be the only hotel in the country [to have those restrictions applied],” he says.

Local resident and patron of the Imperial, Cameron Bayley, says that nightlife in the inner-west has deteriorated since the hotel closed. “There’s nowhere to go… the Newtown closed and the Imperial was meant to reopen in May. The local gay community has nowhere to go.”

Danesi says he believes there is a small minority of vocal residents who opposed the hotel through mis-information. “A majority of the residents support the hotel and I’m very grateful for that support.”

Asked what he would do if his development application was denied again, Danesi says he will “seriously consider all of his options.” He indicated that those options may include the Land & Environment Court, but that it would be “a terrible waste of taxpayers’ money, money that could be better spent on anti-homophobia campaigns, something that Clover Moore says she’s supportive of.”

City of Sydney spokesperson Josh MacKenzie says that when submissions for and against the development application close on September 12 it could be several months before a decision is reached, let alone before the hotel can open its doors again.

“It just depends on how complicated the [Imperial’s] development application is and how many submissions are received,” MacKenzie says.

In the meantime, the doors remain firmly closed, and we all continue to wait.

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