Smoking ban a ‘plus’ for builders

BY MATTHEW LEVINSON
State Government bans on smoking in pubs and clubs have been a gift to the building industry. So far $8.24 million has been spent renovating pubs in the Darlinghurst area alone.
Forty-four development applications for smoking areas and outdoor seating at pubs and clubs have been lodged with the City of Sydney, and are either approved or still being assessed, since the no smoking law came into effect in July last year.
Director of the Master Builders’ Association NSW, Brian Seidler, said the resulting renovations and additions have been a ‘plus’ for the building industry.
‘Construction for housing is at its lowest point in 50 years,’ he said. ‘But renovations and additions to venues are keeping the industry buoyant.’
Pub renovations have been beneficial for the small builders most affected by the constricted housing market, he said, particularly in landlocked inner-city venues where ‘owners have to either go up or in’.
But these renovations are now under threat after the NSW Supreme Court ruled that Dubbo RSL was in breach of smoking laws for providing a partly enclosed terrace opening onto a courtyard, rather than two separate sites.
Dubbo RSL Club had spent $4m in renovations to comply with the 2000 regulations for pubs and clubs.
Chief Justice Peter McClellan, who presided over the test case between Dubbo RSL and the State Government, said his decision was ‘of general significance to licensed premises’.
He said the TAB and gaming rooms were ‘enclosed’ areas that were clearly separate from the outdoor areas.
A Clubs NSW spokesperson told The City News last week: ‘To call this decision ambiguous is the unequivocal understatement of the year and it is a dire result for the clubs.’
Meanwhile venue owners say they now have mixed feelings about the renovations.
Gary Papadopoulos, the manager at Darlinghurst Road nightclub Bada Bing, said everyone in the industry is suffering.
Bada Bing built a $70,000 smokers’ terrace soon after the legislation passed, and recently filed another development application to remove folding windows from the club’s first floor terrace.
‘Every business in Sydney, [that deals] with the smoking laws has suffered a 25 to 30 per cent decrease in business,’ he said.
Under the law, hotels are allowed to label an area ‘outdoors’, and open it to smoking, if just 25 per cent of the ceiling and wall area can be opened to the outdoors.
Owners of the Royal Sovereign Hotel, known as the Darlo Bar, spent $800,000 demolishing part of the pub’s roof to create a new first floor bar and outdoor courtyard.
The hotel’s operator, Solotel, pursued a similar approach in its other pubs, including the Green Park Hotel in Darlinghurst, the Clock Hotel in Surry Hills, and the Golden Sheaf in Double Bay. Solotel GM Andrew Gibbs was unavailable for comment.
One of the more spectacular refurbishments since the ban, according to Clubs NSW chief executive David Costello, is the City Tattersalls Club, where more than $1 million was spent on its outdoor smoking area.
Another club to have undergone a multimillion dollar refurbishment due to the smoking ban is the Sydney Aussie Rules Football Club in Kings Cross.
The Darlinghurst Road club, which includes venues The Bourbon and Club Swans, has spent $220,000 in the past year specifically on new smoking areas.
Licensed clubs like these have experienced a pokies-driven resurgence in recent years, with subsequent reinvestment in the venues. But that has been derailed to some extent by the indoor smoking ban.
Club incomes have dropped 11 per cent over the past year, Mr Costello said.
‘On top of this, clubs invested $422 million [state-wide] preparing for the laws by constructing outdoor areas,’ he said.
The problem, as AHA chief Bill Healey sees it, is not only that venues have had to do renovations. For most pubs, he said, the current spate of renovations would have been unforseen, and therefore not factored into budgets.
‘The need to respond to the bans has probably meant other capital investments have had to be delayed or shelved,’ he said.