The building housing Stonewall’s Diva bar is up for sale – but don’t fret about its future just yet as Gay Sydney News can reveal the venue has the option to stay at the premises until June 2029.
Facilitated by Ray White Commercial with a price guide of $3.7 million, the sale is of the entire building at 177 Oxford Street, including ground floor Diva bar, level 1 Millk Medi Spa, and a storage room used by the spa.
The listing first became public more than 60 days ago on November 8 as an auction but it is now “offered for sale by negotiation”.
Land title records obtained by Gay Sydney News show that Stonewall’s lease of the Diva bar expires on November 3 this year. However, Stonewall has the option to renew the lease for another 3 years, 7 months and 27 days, which would take its leasehold of the bar until June 30, 2029.
Millk Medi Spa’s lease expires June 30, 2027, with the option to renew for another five years.
Stonewall separately holds another lease of its main premises at 175 Oxford Street.
Ray White’s listing says the 177 Oxford Street building generates an annual income of $192,694.88 from its tenants.
Real estate sources told Gay Sydney News that regardless of a sale, Stonewall would maintain its right to renew the lease in November, meaning it won’t face any potential threat of eviction until at least 2029.
Whether Stonewall renews the Diva bar lease later this year is up to Stonewall itself.
Gay Sydney News reached out to Stonewall on Friday night asking whether it intends to maintain the lease but the venue did not respond by deadline.
It’s unclear exactly why the building is up for sale, although Ray White’s listing says it is being sold on behalf of court-appointed trustees pursuant to section 66G of NSW’s Conveyancing Act 1919.
Section 66G of the act provides a legal mechanism to resolve disputes between property co-owners.
Unrelated to the sale, two sources close to Stonewall told Gay Sydney News that there have been multiple issues with the main Stonewall building and Diva bar for a while now. The buildings were “both very old”, one source said, adding that issues included “leaks, faulty electrical systems, etc etc”.
“But that’s standard for a lot of the venues on Oxford Street unfortunately.”
Said another source close to the building: “The whole office area and the upstairs room leaks live a sieve.”
Despite this, Stonewall recently renovated the Diva bar and removed its poker machines, opening up the area and providing more places for patrons to sit down.
During winter last year Stonewall ceased trading seven days a week, closing on Mondays and Tuesdays. It has yet to re-open on those days.
In November 2002, Stonewall’s second-floor suspended ceiling collapsed at 5.15am one morning, The Sydney Morning Herald reported at the time, with partygoers fearing incorrectly that a bomb had gone off given the incident occurred less than one month after the Bali bombings.
Sixteen people were injured and most escaped with cuts and bruises, the newspaper said, but one man was trapped under the wreckage for about 20 minutes.
“We thought it was a bomb – it was surreal,” Jean-Paul Chia, from London, told the Herald at the time. “All the gay boys were congregating outside wailing and crying, saying, ‘Oh no, Bali has happened again.’ But it hadn’t.
“The beams had slanted down and collapsed. Three people were dancing under it and were hit. Most people moved away calmly.”
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Gay Sydney News editor