Former Mansion "The Nightclub" to be Converted Into Luxury Apartments

HERITAGE-listed manor turned hardcore bondage club “The Mansion”, at the fork where Queens Road becomes Dandenong Road, has sold to a private developer, who will convert the ramshackle building into six oversized luxury apartments.
 
The Mansion sale comes about seven years after a development consortium led by ex-St Kilda Football Club director John Gdanksi, purchased the historic home, lifted it, moved it, and erected an 18-level apartment building behind it.

Built in the 1880s for financier Laurence Benjamin, The Mansion at 83 Queens Road was converted into a world class nightclub of the same name in the early 1990s. 
 
At its peak later that decade, The Mansion traded four nights a week – including Sundays when it hosted the Hellfire Club – a fetish focussed flocking, earning the once prestige home the title of Victoria’s most hedonistic club.
 
Walls within The Mansion were removed, and reconfigured as four bars and two large dance areas with dark alcoves where one – or more – could boogie undisturbed and unseen. The club also included a rooftop terrace and several balconies.
 
The Mansion nightclub closed its huge double door entrance for good in 1998, amid rumours of poor financial performance, and pressure from police. The site was sold several times, eventually winding up in the hands of financier City Pacific from Queensland.
 
City Pacific is believed to have sold The Mansion building for about $1.5 million, far less than the speculated $2.5 million it was seeking when it tried to sell the property in 2007, sources say.
 
A City Pacific spokesman said it also recently sold the last 60 apartments within The Gateway apartment building, the name given for the high rise building behind The Mansion.