Imperial keeping neighbours in mind

Imperial keeping neighbours in mind

Imperial Hotel owner Shadd Danesi is in the final stages of preparing the venue for opening, he told Sydney Star Observer.
Danesi wants to get the soundproofing perfect before he sets a date, to head off the potential for complaints from neighbours.
“We’re still trying to address the breakout of base noise,” Danesi said. “We’re making headway but there are a lot of issues with sound in such an old building.
“It’s only a slight breakout of noise and to the average person in the street it wouldn’t make any difference at all. We’ve been testing the sound at two and three in the morning without complaints, but you can hear it in the street.
“My concern is that some neighbours might go there and listen and then ring council and that’s why we’ve got to go over and above the call of duty here.
“I know what council’s attitude is going to be if we don’t get it perfect, so it’s pointless opening until I’ve got it right.”
Danesi said he was committed to striking a balance between the needs of patrons and residents.
“We need to keep the right volume of music inside for the patrons to keep them happy and at the same time we need to respect our neighbours by stopping any breakout of base noise. We’re working hard on it and no one is more frustrated than I am.”
The venue is using a range of soundproofing materials, with acoustic insulation batts placed in ceiling areas, and compressed acoustic fibre cement siding in others.
However, the biggest project is getting new acoustic doors — each weighing 100 kilograms — custom-made for the building.
“You just can’t go and buy these in stores,” Danesi said. “I had to get them designed by an acoustic engineer. Once they’ve been priced and ordered, it takes another two to three weeks to make them, and we have to reinforce the doorframes to take them.”
Once that is finished, an Occupation Certificate Report can be completed and signed off by council.

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28 responses to “Imperial keeping neighbours in mind”

  1. The imperial is just a part of the ever disappearing gay scene. I remember the good ol days of the albury and the likes and now it seems as though we have taken a century step back in time, where I would not been caught dead walking down the main gay drag holding another mans hand. I am not quite sure at what point in time this city began to suck..oh yes I do, the imperial closed!!! I have every faith it will re-open and be a great straight bar like they all do!!!!!!!!!

  2. @ Asquith have to agree with u , ive bitched and moaned about it not being opened after over 3 yrs when i remember originally told it would take 6months to open(which i thought was to long at the time) its annoying and frustrating the wait and deep down and on the surface i cant wait for the impy to open and will be there with bells on when it finally does happen i just hope it still lives up to everyones expectations and has the same vibe as what it did before and doesnt become another gay no go zone or a non gay zone???

  3. I think the jokes on the ones who are bitter and twisted, they rant and rave on how they dont care anymore, but guess what?? you care so much to actually be envolved in discussions about the imperial – lets face it, as twisted or bitter as we may be, deep down.. we just want it open!!

    yay!!!

  4. Wow! There are some real bitter and twisted comments from people with way too much time on their hands.

    I mean REALLY!

    If the Impy has frustrated you so much why do you continue to bang on, and on, about it? Twisted sisters MOVE ON! And David, you obviously don

  5. we need venues in Newtown. Let’s hope it is successful and inspires other venues in Newtown to open their doors as gay venues.

  6. rob1966 – your second paragraph talks about times moving on, but your first presupposes that anyone who might go to the Imperial would be coming from Oxford Street. Interesting.

  7. Residents?? There weren’t hardly any residents close by when it originally closed for renovations- but now there is row after row of new terraces being erected- including three new ones right across the road on what was previously a vacant lot (where they once stored the Priscilla bus). If they had of just re-opened in the first place, there would have been alot less of these “residents”… who if they did move there while it was operating would know what they were getting themselves in for & couldn’t really complain.

  8. I don’t know if he does drag, but he does like a nice floor-length robe.

  9. Maybe management is waiting for when Jesus Christ returns so he can open it.

  10. Firstly I must agree with what Stanford said there is no need for you Mark to be patronizing to us all. Everyone here agrees that we have been told for sometime now that this place is going to open we just keep hearing the same thing over and over again. As for you Jason sounds like you have no idea what you’re talking about. We have been told so many times that this place is going to re open soon and then nothing then same thing again. We don’t expect them to open according to our timetable where just sick of them saying where opening then nothing do you get it now? I’m not going to bother reading the next story in the star observer about the imperial because more then likely it will be saying the same thing we keep hearing imperial ready to open come on star observer stop letting them waste space in our paper.

  11. No wonder all the gay pubs are being sold, if all are as bitter and twisted as some of you guys are over this I can only imagine the owners just find it to difficult to deal with. How about embraceing a new venue like the Imperial when it does finally open and then we may start getting the community back to its grass roots. If you knew some of the residents he is dealing with then you may understand why it has been so difficult, but then i guess it is easier to complain then it is to support.

  12. And the amount of times we’ve heard “I’ve had a sneak peak, it’s amazing, just you wait!” just adds to the frustration!

  13. Unfortunately the Imperial lost me and some of my friends when incredibly six or seven years ago we were refused service for being stone cold sober! The bar persons just didn’t like the look of us. We never went back. And we were regulars. We just went down the road to drink after that. I doubt we will ever go back.

  14. Yawn!

    As someone else has pointed out .. is anyone seriously going to catch a taxi from Oxford Street to Erskinville (min $20) to pay a cover-charge (min $20) to enter a venue if, after they’ve arrived, they decide they want to go somewhere else?

    Whilst the Imperial used to be an icon of the gay scene, times have moved on during its closure for “renovations” – the scene has become more integrated with the wider community, complementary gay venues in Newtown have closed, and gays and lesbians have found other things to do.

    I wish the Imperial well, and will probably stick my head in at least once to check it out, but I don’t expect it to be around very long.

  15. Guys

    Shadd was decent enough to give me a walk through a few weeks ago. I’m a local and he invited me through.
    It is all but finished except for those doors he mentioned
    and it looks stunning.

    Seriously guys the place looks brilliant, the cellar bar will take your breath away. It really is worth the wait.

    Thanks again to shadd for the walkthrough I appreciated it

    marcus

  16. Mark, there’s no need to be patronising.

    We’re all adults. We realise that it’s not easy to open a small business, and we’re probably only worked up because we’re all very keen to embrace the new venue.

    And I’m sure most of us are well aware that unexpected delays are all part of the process.

    However, in the case of the Imperial, we’ve been told opening dates with a degree of certainty for more than a year now, to the point where it’s become quite laughable, that’s all.

    But come to think of it, the seams on my new shirt have been quite shoddily sewn. Geez, louise!

  17. Mark – thanks for your concern but rest assured I don’t lay awake at night finding things to complain about.

    I genuinely wish the Imperial all the best and hope it regains it crown.

    But my heart sinks every time I see an article predicting that it’s opening is just around the corner but with no date set. It’s getting to be a bit like the kids’s story ‘cry wolf’.

    Personally, I think it would be better if they didn’t say anything until the work was almost all done and they had an actual date finalised and then they announced that in a blaze of publicity.

    But please, no more opening dates “…in about six weeks” and no more excuses based on what they think the council might possibly do.

  18. Yay.

    It has, been a while but The Imperial isn’t going to open because your ready.

    My Partner and I live out west in Penrith and had made The Imperial our home on a Saturday when they were open. Just like you, everyone else has been waiting.

    Being business owners there is alot of red tape with renovations and those pencil pushers who have a check list, are not afraid to use it, weather they have the “experience” or just being handed the clipboard, they have “power” to close a business down just like that. The General Public have no understanding the hassles that business have to go through with Government and council kerfuffle these days. So, from a business point of view, you wouldn’t want to sell a half-assed project.

    What is with this attitude of been sick and of been tired? Do you actually get that way? or did you just have the oppertunity to have your say? If you’re really getting affected by the missed deadlines then suggestions would lead you to build your own Nightclub/bar, “but oh, it’s too hard, let someone else do it”. Buck up and find somthing else to click about because I’m sure by opening night you and your group will be the first ones lining up.

    Of course The Imperial will never be the same but give it a rest. Find a home away from home and if you like The Imperial when their doors are open, then thats great. If you don’t, then I’m sure you’ll find somthing else to complain about, maybe the new shirt you bought 2 sizes too small doesnt fit, right?

  19. Jason – “Just because it hasn’t happened to our timetable”.

    It’s been years Jason, Not months – years. And the timetable we’ve working too is the one given to us, via the pages of SSO and the like, by the owners of this venue. I seem to remember that over the last two years it’s been an almost constant case of “6 weeks until opening”.

    The hilarious thing about the Imperial saga is not that it hasn’t opened yet but rather that the gay community has constantly told what turned out to be wildly optimistic predictions of a reopening date which have been constantly broken. Over and over again. Remember that Imperial search for a drag queen competition months ago? The one that led us to beleive it might actually finally be opening? What happened to that?

    This is a classic case of over promise and under deliver and then potentially alienate your audience.

    But I genuinely hope it does well when it opens. It was a key venue on the scene.

  20. OUR timetable? How many times have we been told “about six more weeks”???!

  21. the point is more like – will people trek out to erskineville to have to pay a cover charge? i doubt it.
    locals wont want to pay a cover either…

  22. Oh you bitter old queens …. nothing to do but bitch … just ‘cos it hasn’t opened according to your timetable …

  23. I have every confidence that the Imperial will be open sometime after the the end of June. I’m not going to be so bold as to try to predict which year though.

  24. An addition to the urban dictionary? “Imperialising” – verb, to make wildly optimistic statements about some future event that has infinitely impossible odds of occurring.

    Joe: I’m thinking about getting a 3-D wide screen hi-def wifi and 3g Dick Tracy watch next week.

    Paul: That’s rather imperialising, isn’t it?

    Joe: That may be so, but if it ain’t happening, it’s because of the Sydney City Council won’t allow them to be sold yet.

    Paul: Oh, then that’s definitely imperialising!

  25. Thus far the Imperial has missed it’s original opening date; several Mardi Gras seasons; and even it’s biggest fan and attraction – Mitzi – has got tired of waiting and, ash cloud premitting, is about to jet off to England. It’s even possible that an entire term of the Federal Parliament may have passed before the Impy reopens. Major reform to Australia’s health system may well take less time than this refurbishment. Even by the yawn inducing progress of Sydney pub refurbishments this is just becoming a bad joke. It makes the Bank refit look positively brief and well organised in comparison. But good to see it’s not in anyway Shad’s fault. No, no, no. It’s that darned City of Sydney Council again. Always finding new ways to trample all over the beer imbibing rights of the gay community again. Or so some would have us beleive. The pitiful saga of this refurbishment is already less Imperial glory and more Greek tragedy.

  26. I just laugh whenever i read a “not long now” story about the Imperial these days!

  27. Im sick of waiting for this place to open I think I will just continue drinking at the courthouse in Newtown that pub rocks. Come on everyone come and drink at the courthouse forget the Imperial.How long have these guys been saying they will open.