SEA BREEZE HOTEL
This is how the northern side of Tom Uglys Bridge would have looked had Kogarah Council not said “No” a $30 million development application in 1979.
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Businessman Gary Waterford wanted to build a 19-storey apartment block on the site of the old Sea Breeze Hotel at Blakehurst.
Mr Waterford, of Sans Souci, owned the Cheapa Carpets business as well as being the owner, operator and licensee of the century-old hotel.
When Kogarah Council rejected the $30 million plans, Mr Waterford didn’t give up.
In 1989, revised plans for a 17-storey luxury apartment tower were submitted.
The proposed $40 million project, including 83 apartments, met strong community opposition.
Mr Waterford told the Leader he and his family had received abusive telephone calls from ‘‘lunatic fringe groupies’’.
He said opponents were ‘‘selfish and short-sighted’’, and the plan was ‘‘far preferable to some which overseas investors would foist upon the community’’.
Meanwhile, the hotel had been given a 3am trading licence, and was seeking to open 24 hours.
A petition to State Parliament ‘‘humbly prayed’’ that ‘‘the hopes and aspirations of the majority of the residents of the neighbourhood to live in reasonable peace and quiet will outweigh the commercial interest of one man’’.
A smaller scale development was eventually approved, and the hotel was demolished and replaced by 34 apartments, which were completed in 1995.
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