Sydney’s newest boutique hotel opens behind iconic Coke sign

Sydney’s new Hotel Indigo Potts Point has just opened, with decor nodding and winking at the formerly and famously red-light area’s colourful past. It is, however, a shining example of the new Kings Cross, a glossier, gentrified place, much like many such areas in international cities, including London’s Soho, where sex shops and strip clubs have given way to cafes and wine bars.

Love or hate the new look, the area, on a peninsula at the gateway to Sydney’s eastern suburbs, remains an ideal spot for travellers looking to explore Sydney’s many delights. Not only does it have water views and good coffee, it’s a 30-minute walk to the Opera House and not much more via public transport to Bondi Beach. Only now those travellers are decreasingly likely to be backpackers, with bleisure trippers, staycationers and the Instagram-generation seeker of experiences with social media punch entering the picture.

The Hotel Indigo Potts Point’s location certainly packs a punch – it’s right behind the iconic Coca-Cola sign that has characterised the busy intersection of Kings Cross, Darlinghurst and Bayswater roads at the entrance to the Cross since 1974 (though the original neon was replaced by an electronic sign in 2016).

In the mid-noughties, Ashington Group’s Cross+ spent $55 million converting part of Sydney’s old Millennium Hotel into a mixed-use development that included a boutique hotel pre-leased to 8Hotels. 8Hotels installed the Diamant Hotel there, which in turn became the Larmont by Lancemore and now, Hotel Indigo Potts Point.

Pro-Invest Group – with a portfolio of 31 hotels including Kimpton Margot Sydney and Hotel Indigo Melbourne – has spent an undisclosed “multi-million-dollar” sum creating the new 105-room boutique property.

Interiors by Surry Hills studio Five Foot One Design (projects include hospitality areas of the Sydney Opera House) feature homages to the neighbourhood with murals by Sydney artist Kate Banazi.