Justin Hemmes buys 5-7 Barrack Street for more than $15 million
Justin Hemmes has added another Sydney CBD freehold to Merivale’s precinct play, with the group buying the vacant four-level building at 5-7 Barrack Street for a speculated price of more than $15 million. The purchase folds the site into the company’s Barrack and George streets cluster, next to its proposed Kings Green hospitality development.
Barrack Street adds 342 square metres
The 342-square-metre site carries 1,229 square metres of floor area and is zoned SP5 Metropolitan Centre, with approval for a 60 metre building and an 8:1 floor space ratio. The building was offered vacant and was last occupied by the City of Tattersalls club, after earlier use by the RSL.
Merivale’s purchase gives Hemmes control of another address in a tightly held part of the CBD, where the group is already building around Hotel CBD at 75 York Street. That property has been part of Merivale’s portfolio since 1995 and sits at the anchor point for Kings Green.
Kings Green and $200 million
Kings Green is described as a major mixed-use entertainment hub spanning several heritage buildings bounded by King, York, Clarence and Barrack streets. It incorporates a site bought for about $200 million in 2022 and has City of Sydney approval for interconnected restaurants, bars, a sports bar, nightclub, boutique hotel, wellness facilities and premium office space across 16,300 square metres.
The Barrack Street acquisition extends that footprint by adding an adjacent freehold beside the planned precinct. For Merivale, the new site sits inside the same street grid that already links its Hotel CBD base with the larger Kings Green scheme.
Colliers closed the sale
James Cowan and Jack McGregor of Colliers handled the deal. Their sale adds another piece to Merivale’s control around Barrack and George streets, where the vacant building can be folded into a broader hospitality and mixed-use strategy rather than left as a standalone property.
The important point for the Sydney CBD is simple: Hemmes now has one more site beside a planned precinct that already has approval, scale and an anchor asset at 75 York Street. The Barrack Street freehold is small at 342 square metres, but its zoning, height allowance and position next to Kings Green make it part of the same commercial map.
