BENNETTS LANE JAZZ CLUB TO MOVE TO GRAND HYATT

Three weeks after closing its doors after 23 years, the Bennetts Lane Jazz Club business-which was recently acquired by entrepreneur David Marriner is seeking to reopen within the Grand Hyatt Hotel.  

The collaboration with the ritzy hotel comes months after the Melbourne developer's permit to redevelop the adjacent Forum Theatre with a 32-level hotel and apartment building, was revoked. 

In a twist, the Grant Hyatt permit will be made by the City of Melbourne council, who Mr Marriner took to court in May, along with Planning Minister Richard Wynne and six others, to reinstate the $150 million Forum project (which the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal deemed should not have been decided by the now Opposition Leader, Matthew Guy). 

A Grand Hyatt deal would solve a headache for Mr Marriner if he bought the jazz venue with plans to move it into the iconic Forum Theatre, which would be restored as part of plans to redevelop rear airspace. He has previously told music enthusiasts the new jazz music venue would be reopened on Flinders Lane by early 2016. 

Mr Marriner owns another complex in the immediate area. On the corner Flinders Lane and Russell Street, the former Church of Scientology building was also once earmarked by Mr Marriner to become a mid-rise hotel, before it was leased to Chanel. 

Mr Marriner also redeveloped the Regent Hotel which opened in March 1929, a month after the Forum. He also restored the Princes Theatre after buying it in 1986. 

Bennetts Lane Jazz Club founder Michael Tortoni sold his venue's long-time home in a $10 million off market deal last year managed by Vinci Carbone. The new owner of that site, a developer, is expected to build a residential skyscraper on the land. 

The club closed its doors for good at 25 Bennetts Lane on June 15.