Nicholas Building will mark centenary in March

After a reported $80 million sale fell through in 2022, major rent hikes saw a significant attrition of artists from its studios, but an eclectic range of creative types still work in the Nicholas Building, which turns 100 in March.

On days of extreme heat like some the city sweltered through this summer, the tenants of the Nicholas Building, on the corner of Swanston St and Flinders Lane, don’t celebrate the “Commercial Palazzo” style edifice so keenly.

The 1926 structure, which marks its centenary this year, is loaded with cultural cachet.

It featured in a Courtney Barnett film clip, has hosted cult arts figure Vali Myers and is reportedly where the blockbuster Shantaram was written.

But it has no cooling or heating and no running water outside of the bathroom sinks.

Its toilets – located on the mezzanine levels between floors – are often said to be substandard and inadequate in number.

Heritage protections and the age of the building reportedly prevent renovations being carried out that might bring them closer to 21st century expectations.

There are widespread claims, too, that the building’s managing agents are not responsive to maintenance issues.

On the eighth floor the female toilet was said to have been left open to the elements for years, its window frame empty of glass or flyscreen.

Another reported problem was flooding of studios on the upper floors, which lasted for several years and saw tenants’ work repeatedly damaged.

But one long-term tenant, who like others at the building didn’t want to be named, says it has been “looked after beautifully and respected in every way”.

Allard Sheldon senior partner and property manager Anne Magee also flatly denied that the agency had failed to respond to tenants’ issues appropriately.

Responding to reported criticism about the imposition of dramatic rent increases in 2023, Ms Magee said they had “brought rent more up to a realistic amount for what the costs of running the building were”.

Where tenants had received very large hikes it was probably because they had been there for a long time and hadn’t had any increases in years, she said.

“The bottom line is if people don’t want to be there, they don’t have to be.”

“It’s a commercial building on commercial terms.”

Stories published in the media in early July 2022 got ahead of a planned sale that year by the consortium owner to Forza Capital, reporting it occurred at a speculated price of $80 million.

The sale in fact didn’t go ahead.

Ms Magee wasn’t prepared to discuss what went wrong in 2022 or any future plans for the building, saying these were “a matter for the building’s private owners”.

In her top floor internal studio photographer Jess Illichlann says it gets a bit hot.

But Jess, also known by her business name Mad Dame, realised a decades-long dream when she moved into the Nicholas Building last July.

On her wall is a picture of herself as a teenager posed in the stairwell dreaming of a future where she might one day work in the building.

The 39-year-old’s creative venture involves covering her clients in full body glitter and taking glamorous studio portraits of them.

Her work is about the process, she says, which relates to transformation and ritual and gives her clients a feeling of freedom.

And business is booming.

“People think you are in this building, you must be important,” Jess laughed.

Taking the big step of moving in had opened up her world and seen her client numbers double.

Despite the limitations of the old building, which makes cleaning up after messy shoots difficult, “the pleasure of it overrides its quirks”.

“For me it’s like a sanctuary, it’s the safest spot to create the magic,” she said.

“It’s definitely a building that has an artist’s vibe.”

“No-one’s doing anything boring.”

Darcy Neve from Welcome Tattoo has been based on the third floor for the past seven years and is quite happy there.

Street-front premises are mostly out of reach for tattooists now, he says, with the inky art, despite its popularity, one of the first things to be sacrificed in a cost-of-living crisis.

“It’s very fair for me here,” he said. “If you’ve got a small business, it’s not too expensive.”

As well as a great location, the building offered “a lot of nice history and good neighbours”.

“There’s shops in here that I like to visit myself, some cool bookshops,” he said, singling out specialist art book sellers World Food Books.

Before the rent went up Louise Macdonald had a 50-sqm studio overlooking St Paul’s Cathedral.

The veteran milliner, who in her time has made costume hats for Tom Cruise and Vanessa Redgrave, has been in the building since 1995 but downsized to a studio half the size after receiving a large rent increase in 2023.

“It’s definitely changed the make-up of tenants,” she says of the wave of rent hikes of up to 50 per cent that saw many artists move out.

There are still sculptors, jewellers, painters, gallerists and perfume-makers in the building, she noted, “but you’ve got to be making a proper living” to be able to afford to work there.

These days there are more nail bars and tattooists among the tenants and “a constant flow of hard hats and high vis vests coming out of the second floor,” which “the Metro Tunnel people” have been sharing with José Zarpán the bespoke tailor.

The Nicholas Building, like Flinders Lane more generally, was part of her community, Louise said, “and it puts me in touch with people of different ages, which I like”.

While a tenants’ association that flourished for a few years had now folded, the opening of the ground floor Cathedral Café, which at times doubles as a wine bar, had been positive, she said.

“It’s a little bit like a staff room, something that’s added to the community.”

Another long-term creative craftsperson, shoemaker Brendan Dwyer, is philosophical about his Swanston St workplace, summarising the situation there succinctly.

“I’ve been in the building a long time and there’s been rumours of [it being] ‘sold’ many times over,” he said.

“The tenant mix is disparate and random as ever, some [are] professional, some random; some stay, some don’t; rental pressure is ever upward.” •