From Bank Vaults to Boutique Hotel: Project Erskine Moves into Construction

Some projects stop you in your tracks. A former bank building in the heart of Sydney’s CBD, an international developer making their Australian debut, and a globally recognised hotel brand entering the market for the first time in Australia. Project Erskine is all these things and is exactly the kind of project Cerulean was built for.

The former Bank of China building at 39 York Street is being converted from a 15-storey commercial tower into a 152-key lifestyle hotel, the first Motto by Hilton in Australia. The approach builds on the strength of the existing structure, retaining the concrete frame and restoring the arched colonnade base to create a refined civic presence.

Cerulean came on board in October 2024 as the Clients Lead through the development and construction stages of the project, with scope spanning functional briefing, design management, procurement, construction and commissioning. We are now on site. Getting here has required every bit of the experience, persistence, and stakeholder management our team brings.

‍

What the building held

Adaptive reuse projects have a way of keeping you on your toes. In pre-construction alone, the team uncovered an original bank vault on the ground floor, a decommissioned underground petroleum storage tank requiring full removal, HAZMAT conditions requiring testing and reporting, and an entire floor that had served as a full client entertaining and karaoke suite, fish tank included.

These discoveries aren’t just interesting stories. They represent real risk, real cost, and real coordination to resolve. That’s even before you factor in that the building sits within Sydney Trains’ Rail Reserve 2, requiring multiple rounds of structural and geotechnical engineering review, borehole testing, and tunnel surveys before a single approval could be granted.

The work behind the milestone

Reaching construction commencement on a project of this complexity required a disciplined, end-to-end approach. That meant establishing the right procurement strategy from the outset, completing a latent condition soft strip to de-risk the unknown early, and undertaking thorough budget validation across the full development to give our client genuine confidence before committing to construction.

It also meant managing 25+ consultants through detailed design and tender documentation, securing S4.55 approvals, running a full head contractor tender from strategy through to contract execution, and obtaining approvals from Sydney Trains, City of Sydney, and Sydney Water. Each workstream carried its own documentation requirements, its own stakeholder relationships, and its own review cycles. Holding all these moving parts together, on time and with clarity, is what Cerulean does best.

What matters isn’t just getting to site. It’s getting there with the right foundations. Every decision made in pre-construction shapes what’s possible in delivery.

For Invictus Developments, a Singapore-based group making their Australian debut, this regulatory landscape was entirely new territory. Being trusted to guide them through it, and to do so in a way that built lasting confidence, is something we are proud of.

We look forward to sharing more as construction progresses.

‍

🌐Learn more about Cerulean’s work in hospitality and adaptive reuse at www.ceruleanppl.com

‍

In shared pursuit of the remarkable

‍

#Cerulean #ProjectErskine #AdaptiveReuse #MottoByHilton #HospitalityDesign#ClientSidePM #BuiltEnvironment #InvictusDevelopments #HotelDevelopment