Flashback Friday photos | Terrible timing for Cecil Hotel development at Cronulla

The project was completed as Australia was rocked by a an economic recession at the end of 1990, leading to a collapse in the property market.

In 1991, a full page ad in the Leader announced units in the Cecil Apartments were selling “at 30 per cent below replacement cost”.

Two to three years after construction finished, 25 apartments remained for sale.

A sales campaign announced prices had been slashed on the remaining 25 units by up to $95,000.

Prices ranged from $270,000 for a two-bedroom unit on the lower levels to $530,000 for an upper level three-bedroom unit.

The hotel closed in 1988 and only the facade of the old building was retained when the Cecil Apartments opened. 

Sutherland Shire Council approved the project in 1987, and the development application caused little fuss, the Leader reported.

It would be 14 storeys and include 78 units, 10 shops, a restaurant and a private fitness centre.

Half of the accommodation was to be “motel-style apartments for tourists to promote Cronulla as the tourism centre of the shire”. This restriction was later removed.

Councillor Hazel Wilson was the only councillor to object to the development, saying it might be better for the hotel to be renovated and restored.

Cr Wilson said the apartments would only be affordable to the well-off, and the building would “look like a glass tower and menagerie”.

The project caused community concern about high-rise development in the area, leading young school teacher Byron Hurst (later, a councillor) to set up Cronulla Development and Design Watch.

The Cecil Hotel and the Cecil Ballroom & Cafe on the beach below were developed and opened in 1927 by real estate agent, councillor and shire president, Cecil (Joe) Monro.

In later years, the hotel was renovated and expanded in size.

The ballroom closed in the 1950s but a kiosk next to the Esplanade operated for longer, before the building was demolished.