Seniors Housing & Healthcare Trends

LOS ANGELES: Seniors housing apartments are to be built within the footprint of a long established gaming outlet.

Bold plans to finalise a five-year old vision to upgrade the ageing Bondi Junction RSL club, transforming it into a luxury apartment building, complete with a refreshed clubhouse and retail space, are one step closer.

A fresh development application has been submitted to finalise plans to upgrade the RSL club, as part of a wider development to transform the block into a 10-storey luxury apartment building, complete with a refreshed clubhouse and retail space on the ground floor.

Club leadership said the redevelopment – which will be completed through a partnership with Double Bay-based developer Capital Corporation – was essential to ensure the survival of the club.

“The club has had a long history here but sometimes it has felt like we’re working against the odds,” Club Bondi Junction RSL president Bill Harrigan said.

Club Bondi Junction RSL entered an agreement with Capital Corporation in 2017 to revitalise the premises as part of its 80-apartment BOND Bondi Junction project.

The apartments were sold off the plan ahead of construction, according to a Capital Corporation media release.

The DA for the 10 storey building with 80 residential apartments has been approved and is already under-construction.

Along with interior design changes to the two floors for the RSL, this month’s application requested the premises operate from 7am to midnight seven days a week for a one-year trial period.

The $120 million development application – first lodged in 2017 – state the 10-storey mixed use building will contain the revamped club along with shops, 124 residential units and a basement car park.

The revamped club will feature a streetside restaurant open to the public, with club administration offices and boardrooms located on the second floor along with a function area for small-scale and private events.

At the time concerns were raised around the club’s pokie machine count, leading club president Bill Harrigan to assure the amount of space devoted to pokies would remain the same at 65.

Now Mr Harrigan said the club hoped to reverse diminishing membership numbers – which nosedived to 4609 members in 2018 from 6470 in 2003 – through its partnership with the developer.

“We’re creating a new club for everyone in the area. It will suit the whole community, not just the old fellows traditionally associated with RSL clubs,” he said.

“The new design is bright and inviting and we expect it to suit the style and taste of Bondi Junction’s changing demographic.”

Sydney-based interior designers McRae + Lynch are in charge of interior design for the club, with architects Group GSA, interior design studio Koichi Takada Architects and public space firm Urbis behind the BOND development.

Capital Corporation director Jim Hunter said the group had seen success with a similar recent project for the Kogarah RSL which he believed could be replicated.

“These partnerships provide the RSL clubs the opportunity to offer something new to the community and enable them to be sustainable into the future,” he said.

The plans have been placed on exhibition by Waverley Council, with the club and residential building set to open in late 2023.