• Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Local History
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise With Us
  • About Us
  • Subscribe
  • Read Our Newspapers Online
    • Read the Latest Western Port News
    • Read the Latest Mornington News
    • Read the Latest Southern Peninsula News
    • Read the Latest Frankston Times
    • Read the Latest Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News
  • Competition
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • Resident road rage over reduced speed limit
  • Steele retires, ‘Stirts’ to Seagulls
  • Pythons and Tigers all square, oh my!
  • Frankston Football Club hold a successful fair
  • Home services crisis after switch to private providers
  • Call for help after donation drop
  • True passion the source of author inspiration
  • OAM for ‘Coodabeens’ Bill Baxter
Facebook Twitter
MPNEWSMPNEWS
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Local History
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise With Us
  • About Us
  • Subscribe
  • Competition
MPNEWSMPNEWS
Home»Latest News»Meeting to probe hotel’s future
Latest News

Meeting to probe hotel’s future

By Stephen TaylorJune 24, 2019Updated:July 3, 2019No Comments3 Mins Read
WRAPPED in scaffolding and safety netting, the unfinished Continental Hotel dominates the skyline at Sorrento. Picture: Keith Platt
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email
WRAPPED in scaffolding and safety netting, the unfinished Continental Hotel dominates the skyline at Sorrento. Picture: Keith Platt

A COMMUNITY meeting at Sorrento this weekend will try to find out what’s happening at the scaffold surrounded Continental Hotel.

Nepean Conservation Group president Dr Ursula de Jong will give a brief history of the hotel before discussion centres on the stalled renovations, looks at the current works progress and queries the 1875 building’s future.

The venue is the Sorrento Community Centre, 11.30am-1pm, Sunday 30 June. Speakers will include Mornington Peninsula shire planning director David Bergin, the hotel’s developer Julian Gerner, Nepean MP Chris Brayne and a representative from the National Trust. There will be opportunity for questions and answers and everyone interested is invited to attend.

Alarm bells rang loudly over the viability of the hotel’s $80 million redevelopment in May when Mr Gerner admitted being caught up in a funding squeeze before Easter. (“‘Conti’ work stalls as developers chase cash” The News 6/5/19).

At the time an upbeat Mr Gerner said that while a “gap between funding arrangements” had forced and end to works, the “money is in the pipeline for the next stage of construction” in the third quarter of this year. He said the amount being sought was around $40 million.

Meanwhile, Mr Gerner’s joint-venture partner Steller — which specialises in mid and large-scale apartment complexes in Melbourne’s southeast suburbs, and had $4 billion worth of projects in the pipeline last year — has been in the news for all the wrong reasons.

Rushed property sell-offs, dissolved partnerships, manufacturing site closures and staff redundancies came after the company was hit with tighter rules on construction financing and a falling property market; borrowings have become more expensive and harder to obtain. Steller has fired 76 staff from its construction team, put at least one development on hold, and sold three of its development sites to new buyers.

Now, after months of stagnation – and with winter rains wreaking havoc on the exposed structure – the development’s critics are getting edgy.

“The community is incredibly concerned,” Dr de Jong said.

“There is much misinformation around at the moment and the Nepean Conservation Group would like the community to be well informed, so the meeting is urgent and timely.”

Dr de Jong wrote to Mr Bergin and the shire’s building surveyor Claudio Flores last month warning about the “safety, structural stability and potential for degradation of the abandoned works at the old hotel in Ocean Beach Road”.

“A member of our committee is a structural engineer who has experience in refurbishment of distressed buildings and reinstatement of damaged buildings,” her letter said.

The engineer’s report cited “incomplete retaining structures, missing downpipes and guttering, roofs removed and not replaced, unsealed windows and open walls allowing water to damage walls and floors and incomplete structural repairs”.

Claims were also made that 10 metre deep excavations were buttressed with incomplete retaining structures with concrete infills between the piles not finished “exposing the retained soil to erosion and possible collapse”.

The conservation group requested that the council’s building surveyor inspect the works with a suitably qualified independent structural engineer to determine whether the existing building and new structures are safe.

“An emergency order should be issued if the stability is found lacking or the building will suffer from deterioration due to exposure,” Dr de Jong said.

First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 25 June 2019

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Related Posts

Home services crisis after switch to private providers

July 4, 2022

Call for help after donation drop

July 4, 2022

Shire ‘no’ to Esso’s bid for power

June 27, 2022

Call for panel to consider future of green wedge

June 27, 2022
Add A Comment

Comments are closed.

Weather
Jul 5, 2022 - Tue
Mornington, Australia
14°C
clear sky
clear sky
3 m/s, E
57%
768.07 mmHg
tue07/05 wed07/06 thu07/07 fri07/08 sat07/09
sky is clear
13/9°C
sky is clear
10/9°C
light rain
12/11°C
light rain
12/11°C
light rain
12/9°C
Peninsula Essence Magazine

Click here to read

June 27, 2022
Peninsula Kids Magazine

Click here to read

May 26, 2022
Council Watch

Keeping watch on councillor costs

June 27, 2022

Leadership lacking for ‘neutral’ policy

June 20, 2022
Interview

True passion the source of author inspiration

July 4, 2022
Property of the Week

278 Dundas Street, Rye

May 11, 2022
100 Years Ago This Week

Frankston Football Club hold a successful fair

July 5, 2022
Contact
Street: 63 Watt Road, Mornington, 3931
Mailing: PO Box 588, Hastings, 3915
Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Local History
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise With Us
  • About Us
  • Subscribe
  • Competition
About

Established in 2006, Mornington Peninsula News Group (MPNG) is a locally owned and operated, independent media company.

MPNG publishes five weekly community newspapers: the Western Port News, Mornington News, Southern Peninsula News, Frankston Times and Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News.

MPNG also publishes two glossy magazines: Peninsula Essence and Peninsula Kids.

Facebook Twitter
© 2022 Mornington Peninsula News Group.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.