Beresford fights for new class

The Beresford Hotel’s new owner Gerry Ness will appeal to the Land and Environment Court for 3am liquor and entertainment licenses after the City of Sydney blocked his proposal last week.

When the new Beresford opens in May it will have a fine dining restaurant, new deco main bar licensed till 1am, and a garden space with extensive noise protection.

It will be nothing like a nightclub, Ness told SSO. Not like the beer barns. I’m not catering to that type of patron.

The upstairs Grand Ballroom is scheduled to open in October. Ness hopes to host social functions for community groups like the Harbour City Bears and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Business Association.

Investing $25 million into the project, Ness wants the Beresford to set the example and be a venue the community can take pride in.

We are disappointed that the council is not treating the application on its individual merit, instead choosing to be political and driving a draft policy on late trading, Ness said.

Not everybody wants to be on Oxford St or Kings Cross and not everyone wants to be in a nightclub at 2am in the morning.

In rejecting the application, City Planners wrote that patrons leaving the venue after 3am on a residential street would generate nuisance noise and the development was contrary to the objectives of the City’s new Late Night Trading plan.

A City spokesman said the anti-nuisance requirements of the Local Area Plan were a far stronger factor in the rejection than the late trading DCP.

In particular, the proposal is likely to adversely impact on the acoustic amenity of nearby residents and impacts as a result of anti-social activities, the spokesman said.

Across the laneway, the Flinders Hotel also has a 3am trading license.

Ness said a broad mix of late trading premises was a part of council’s rhetoric, and if they looked at the project they’d see it was just what the area needed.

The council [claims] the DCP will encourage diversity, vibrancy and vitality of the City’s night-time economy, as expected in a global city. I hope that’s true for Sydney or we will never be -˜more like Melbourne’, Ness said.

Have your say: Would you like to see the return of the Beresford?