Sydney’s The Roosevelt once owned by crime boss Abe Saffron faces collapse

One of Sydney’s most famous bars previously owned by a notorious crime boss is on the brink of collapse.

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

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

In more recent years, strict lockout laws in New South Wales have killed the nightlife in Kings Cross, once regarded as the Golden Mile with strip clubs and brothels.

Former Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm, an outspoken libertarian who campaigns against the nanny state, said The Roosevelt was the latest victim of lockout laws introduced a decade ago that had killed the once bustling nightlife strip.

‘That’s only the last of many bars that have gone in Kings Cross – it’s nothing like it used to be,’ he told Daily Mail Australia. 

‘Much of the damage has been done. We are never going to get Kings Cross back again and many of the businesses that thrived on the nightlife have gone and will never return.

‘Sydney purports to be Australia’s international city – for a city with those sort of aspirations, the fact you’re struggling to get a drink late at night or you’ve got somewhere to go late at night is absurd.’ 

Notorious crime boss Abe Saffron took over in 1947, earning himself the title ‘The King of the Cross’

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

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

‘That’s one of the last consequences of the lockout laws,’ he told Daily Mail Australia. 

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

‘Covid was really a huge hammer blow to Sydney night life and people’s habits as far as going out,’ he said.

‘Also, it’s the cost of living crisis because we know there’s these fantastic places to go out to in the city but people just aren’t going out because money’s so tight.’ 

The Roosevelt first opened in 1943, entertaining American troops stationed in Sydney.

The Yanks in uniform famously dated Australian women, sparking tensions with local Navy officers stationed at nearby Garden Island.

Notorious crime boss and sex addict Abe Saffron took over in 1947, earning himself the title ‘The King of the Cross’.

The standover man – who bribed politicians and police officers with money and entertainment – ran a business that was so flush with cash it flew in Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Junior over from the US to perform.

Abe Saffron – who bribed politicians and police officers with money and entertainment – ran a business that was so flush with cash it flew in Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Junior over from the United States to perform

Former Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm, an outspoken libertarian who campaigns against the nanny state, said The Roosevelt was the latest victim of lockout laws introduced a decade ago that had killed the Kings Cross nightlife

But the club was temporarily closed in 1953 after NSW police commissioner Colin Delaney successfully sought a Supreme Court order to have it declared a ‘disorderly house’.

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

Laws extending hotel trading hours until 10pm didn’t come into effect until February 1955, following a state referendum.

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

The Roosevelt is at 32 Orwell Street in Potts Point, just 300 metres from Kings Cross train station. 

The venue continues to trade as a debt deal is worked out with creditors, a decade after lockout laws were introduced following an unprovoked punch that killed  Thomas Kelly, 18.

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

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

‘It’s now a dormitory suburb for people who work in the CBD,’ he said.