Merimbula's Club Sapphire investigates 4.5 star hotel

The club has an approved DA for 40 units on land it owns on Main St, Merimbula, it has potential retail interest on land on the corner of the service road and Sapphire Coast Dr and is investigating, through a concept DA, the possibilities for a 100-room 4.5 star hotel with conferencing facilities.

The concept DA for the hotel has been placed with Bega Valley Shire Council. The plan is to firstly investigate what height limits are possible. The current maximum on the Club Sapphire site is 16m but in discussion with hotel groups, it would need to be higher - possibly up to 26m - to accommodate the number of rooms and make the development viable, CEO at Club Sapphire Damien Foley said.

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The long-term project is not currently on exhibition and would need gateway approval from NSW Planning but the plan is to locate the hotel where the current bistro sits.

"There would be some demolition of the south eastern corner of the building and the hotel would be constructed in this location and the existing bistro replaced as part of that construction."

"We're trying to establish what's permissible. There's a gap in the market for 4.5 star hotel and it would mean we could hold conferences at the club and bring a different type of visitor to town. It's all part of our strategy to reduce our reliance on gambling."

Mr Foley said that in talking to hotel groups there was definite interest in the project but it had to be of a size to make it viable.

"We've had discussions with a number of hotel groups and there's geniune interest but there are requirements around the number of rooms and the quality - it would need to be 4.5 stars."

The club's approved 40-unit residential development on Main St has been out with commercial real estate agents who were seeing interest in the development which may turn into something more substantial in the not too distant future Mr Foley said.

"We want to sell the land with the approved DA to an expert in this field, someone who builds units. We have received quite a lot of interest - it hasn't been sold yet - but there's genuine interest out there," Mr Foley said.

The club is also hoping to develop the land on the corner of Sapphire Coast Dr and the service road which Mr Foley believes is ideally suited to retail development.

"We've had quite a lot of interest, we're talking to different entities but it is at an early stage."

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