Sydney’s Roosevelt, once owned by mob boss Abe Saffron, faces collapse

One of Sydney’s most famous bars, once owned by a notorious gangster, is on the brink of collapse.

The Roosevelt, established in Kings Cross during World War II, is undergoing refurbishment in a bid to stay afloat.

David Hurst, director of insolvency specialist Mackay Goodwin and registered liquidator, has been appointed as restructuring professional as the 79-year-old establishment, once run by Abe Saffron, faces a cost of living crisis.

In more recent years, strict lockout laws in New South Wales have put an end to nightlife in Kings Cross, once considered the Golden Mile with strip clubs and brothels.

Former liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm, an avowed libertarian who campaigns against the nanny state, said The Roosevelt was the latest victim of lockout laws introduced a decade ago that had wiped out the once bustling nightlife district.

“This is just the latest of many bars to disappear in Kings Cross – it’s nothing like it used to be,” he told Daily Mail Australia.

‘Much of the damage has already been done. We will never get Kings Cross back and many of the businesses that thrived on nightlife have disappeared and will never return.

‘Sydney aims to be Australia’s international city; for a city with those kinds of aspirations, the fact that you’re struggling to get a drink late at night or find somewhere to go late at night is absurd.’

The hated 1.30am lockouts with a mandatory 3am closing time were scrapped in early 2020, shortly before the pandemic.

But Tyson Koh, who previously led the Keep Sydney Open campaign, said old state government laws had created a perception that Kings Cross was boring.

“That’s one of the ultimate consequences of the lockout laws,” he told Daily Mail Australia.

He said the cost of living crisis was now deterring young people from going out, as they struggled with high rents.

“Covid was a real blow to Sydney’s nightlife and people’s habits around going out,” he said.

‘There’s also the cost of living crisis, because we know there are fantastic places to go out in the city, but people just don’t go out because money is tight.’

The Roosevelt first opened its doors in 1943 to welcome American troops stationed in Sydney.

The uniformed Yankees dated Australian women, sparking tensions with local naval officers stationed on nearby Garden Island.

Notorious mob boss and sex addict Abe Saffron assumed power in 1947, earning himself the title “The Cross King.”

The briber, who bribed politicians and police with money and entertainment, ran a business that had so much cash that he would fly Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Junior over from the United States to perform.

But the club was temporarily closed in 1953 after New South Wales Police Commissioner Colin Delaney successfully sought a Supreme Court order to have it declared a “disorder house”.

That was back when pubs were banned from serving alcohol after 6pm.

Laws extending hotel business hours to 10 p.m. did not come into effect until February 1955, following a state referendum.

The club first opened in 1943 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the wartime US president.

The Roosevelt is located at 32 Orwell Street in Potts Point, just 300 metres from Kings Cross Train Station.

The venue continues to operate while a debt deal with creditors is worked out, a decade after lockout laws were introduced following an unprovoked hit-and-run that killed 18-year-old Thomas Kelly.

Hospitality businesses are the second most likely to close after construction. Australian Securities and Investments Commission data shows they accounted for 15 per cent of insolvencies in the 2023-24 financial year.

Mr Leyonhjelm said Kings Cross was now a boring place for professionals who lived there and worked in the City.

“It’s now a bedroom suburb for people who work in the CBD,” he said.