Loh Lik Peng’s latest project, the Old Clare Hotel Sydney, is due to open end of this month. No one is more relieved than he to see the finish line in sight of this four-year restoration project.
The day I was at the construction site of the Old Clare Hotel Sydney, workmen were bringing in, to my untrained eye, pieces of wood. Loh Lik Peng, the hotelier/entrepreneur behind the Unlisted Collection, paused and then stopped in his tracks.
Loh Lik Peng being reunited with his 200-year-old rafters
“Those are the rafters from the roof that came down two years ago. We didn’t know what we would do with them then. We knew we wanted to keep them because they are 200 years old. It’s quite emotional watching them come back,” he said, visibly moved.
These hundreds of square metres of rafters will now clad the entire ceiling of what will be the hotel’s main dining outlet, the Kensington Street Social which will be helmed by British chef Jason Atherton, and which also happens to be his first Australian digs.
Charlie and the magnificent Oregon wood rafters
The workmen from GP2 Projects were also visibly thrilled to bring in the old rafters. Said Charlie, “These are Oregon wood, they are magnificent. We are excited to be part of a heritage project in a cultural area about to explode.”
It is safe to say that Loh, who’s built a reputation out of buying disused heritage buildings and turning them into hotels and restaurants, did not quite know what he was getting into when he bought into a small part of the old Carlton United Brewery site to convert it into a 62-room boutique hotel.
You can see he is visibly exhausted from the four-year process of not only dealing with what he said “red tape that’s worse than China or the UK” but also a structurally difficult building.
“What to do,” he shrugged. “I like difficult old buildings. This was not easy structurally. The building was built in stages, starting from the early 20s. It’s a complex building, plus it’s listed and the regulatory process was tough, the toughest I have encountered.”
One of the most challenging things he had to do was to add two more storeys to the hotel. On the rooftop (where the rafters used to be) is a bar with a great view of the Chippendale area and a heated swimming pool.
Rooftop swimming pool, heated of course
As with his first property, Hotel 1929, which he converted from an old shophouse in Singapore’s Chinatown, this was also an opportunistic acquisition. He had been told of the building by Dr Stanley Kwek, the chairman of Frasers Property, which is developing the entire Carlton United Brewery site.
“I like the idea of working in an old brewery in a heritage building. On top of that – I love Sydney. It all came together and seemed like something that would work for us as a group.”
The Old Clare Hotel will join the Unlisted Collection’s group of five hotels. It also runs 20 restaurants in major cosmopolitan cities.
Asked if he bought it for a song, as he did with Hotel 1929, which he bought during a property bust, he shook his head and laughed, “Those days are long gone.”
The Old Clare Hotel carries all the signature trademarks of his Unlisted Collection hotels which include Hotel 1929, New Majestic and Wanderlust in Singapore, Waterhouse in Shanghai and the Town Hall Hotel & Apartments in Bishopsgate, London. Each room is individually designed and each have their own quirks. One suite we were shown had the original bar from the Brewery serving as the headboard for the bed.
Fancy sleeping with a bar at your head?
The largest suite still has the original men’s bathroom attached to it, complete with urinal. “They didn’t have women in boardrooms then, so it was an all-male affair,” said Loh.
The original urinal
As much of the old has been kept to give the hotel its character and theme linked to its history as a brewery.
And as with all his properties which come with signature restaurants attached, the Old Clare Hotel will house, other than Jason Atherton’s Kensington Street Social, two highly-anticipated restaurants – Automata, fronted by Momofuku Seiobo alumni Chef Clayton Wells; and Silvereye, headed by Sam Miller, the former executive sous chef at Noma.
It was hard for me to see how the hotel could be ready for a soft opening end August – this was already August 5 and it still looked like a construction site to me. “It’s nearly done, just the fittings and fixtures now,” said Loh.
You can tell he’s visibly relieved that the end is in sight. This project has been a toll on him as well as his young family, with so much of his time having to be spent in Sydney to personally see through the project.
Did you ever think of giving up, I asked? “Halfway through, I thought about it, but what to do, I had no choice. I had started it.”
Asked if he would do it again knowing what he knew now, he said, “It’s rewarding but tough. Maybe not.”
Having said that, Loh is an entrepreneur at heart. He has the instincts to see a good thing and the perseverance to see it through, no matter the odds.
The Old Clare Hotel has all the ingredients for success. It’s in a city which hasn’t seen too many exciting hotel projects of late, it’s in an upcoming, vibrant and young part of town – Chippendale. The University of Technology is just next doors and around it are malls with trendy brands such as Superdry and Din Dai Fung. It’s also in a city which loves its heritage, food and chefs – Masterchef Australia is huge Down Under – and, of course, its beer.
Now all he has to do is open it.
