NEWS PROPERTY

The Byron Bay Beach Hotel, developed by John Cornell, known as “Strop” in his television days on the Paul Hogan show, has sold for $70 million to Melbourne-based investors. Mr Cornell sold the site for $44 million in 2007 to businessman Max Trigg who has spent the past decade renovating the site. He has now sold to the Liberman-family backed Impact Investment Group. An IIG spokesperson said the group saw strong potential to regenerate the “heart and soul” of Byron Bay with a strategy focused on achieving bold green and social impact initiatives over a three to four years period. “We’re looking forward to settling this transaction in six months’ time. It’s a great hotel, and we’ve already made a lot of progress planning our environmental upgrades and how we’ll work with the operator and locals to deliver real positive impacts for the Byron Bay community,” they said.

The Murphy family have sold the Belmore Hotel in Maitland in the NSW Lower Hunter Valley to local businessman for $9 million. The on-market campaign was executed by Blake Edwards, Andrew Jolliffe and Xavier Plunkett of Ray White Hotels Australia. The family have owned the large gaming and bistro pub since 2003, but have shifted their investment focus to other developments. The sale follows publican Arthur Laundy selling another regional NSW pub recently, The Bateau Bay Hotel for $13 million to a local group.

From a private retreat for international stars such as Pink to a potential gay couples’ haven, Paradise Bay Island Resort’s opportunities are almost endless. For just $1.5 million, the 10-acre slice of island paradise off the coast north of Mackay could be all yours — but you’ll have to get in line as an LGBTI organisation from Melbourne is keen to turn it into a gay couples’ resort. Originally listed for $4.5 million, the luxury resort has been drastically reduced with Australian Islands agent Richard Van Hoff keen to see it sold to someone who can take it to its full potential.

Inner-city pub transactions are picking up after a period of slow activity with the Park Hotel in Abbotsford selling for $3.18 million against a reserve of $2.25 million. The mid-19th century pub at 191 Nicholson Street was sold on a 2.6 per cent yield by two brothers who had owned the venue as an investment for 35 years. Knight Frank’s Andrew Greenway and Paul Pellegrino said the purchaser had no intention of redeveloping the building into apartments, a now-common trend with Melbourne’s popular pubs. The venue has less than a year to run on the current leasehold with a further three year option. Pubs are bought and sold either as freehold or leasehold, with the leasehold covering the pub’s liquor business. The two-storey 500 square metre hotel includes a front bar, dining room, commercial kitchen, beer garden and upstairs accommodation. Mr Greenway said the new owner intended to hold the pub as an investment. Another popular inner-city pub, the East Brunswick Hotel in Lygon Street, is set be auctioned with vacant possession and is expected to fetch more than $3.5 million.

The Laundy family has raised $13 million from the sale of its Bateau Bay pub to a local investor, reflecting the strong demand for the hotel sector along the NSW coastal regions. It comes as more than $1 billon pubs have been sold in the past year, boosted by the sell-down of the Geoff Dixon, John Singleton Australian Pub Fund and also the Lantern Hotel assets. The coming year is likely to see another round of assets hit the market as investors sell out to local operators who can transform the assets into being less reliant on gaming and more focused on food and signature chefs. CBRE Hotels national director Daniel Dragicevich and manager Ben McDonald advised the Laundy family, and said the sub-10 per cent capitalisation rate “underlined the strength of the NSW coastal pub market following the recent sales of the Swansea Hotel in Lake Macquarie and the Country Club in Shoal Bay”.

A private equity group has swooped on the Allawah Hotel in Sydney’s south west, in a sign that the city’s pub boom remains in full swing as banks continue lending to the sector despite tightening up in other areas. The unnamed group snapped up the Allawah Hotel, which sits on a 1,274 sqm corner site next to the Allawah train station, in a deal worth about $30 million. The pub was sold by parties associated with JDA Hotels, which had owned the property since 2007. JDA has kept a small ownership stake in the pub and will manage it for the buying entity. The pub sector has been buoyed by a series of portfolio sales and continued buying by experienced publicans and the families that hold sway across the industry. Just last month Sydney bar king Justin Hemmes bought the northern beaches watering hole The Collaroy in a play worth about $21m and investment bank Moelis finalised its purchase of the $677m Redcape Hotel Group. Ray White Group Asia Pacific Director of Hotels Andrew Jolliffe has handled multiple large format hotels sales this year and the latest property to be sold was a very strong A-grade gaming hotel sale.

Historic inner city Melbourne pub, the Tankerville Arms Hotel in Fitzroy, has been put up for sale by prominent Melbourne hotelier Mazen Tabet and his investment partners with market expectations of around $20 million. The 1865-built gaming pub, on a 1087 square metre site over three titles at 230 Nicholson Street, will go to auction on October 5 at a time of very strong appetite for hospitality assets from operators and for inner city development sites. Mr Tabet, who paid $17 million for the Portsea Hotel in Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula in January 2016 (buying it from Computershare founder Chris Morris) and who also owns the Lynbrook Hotel in Melbourne’s south-east, shares ownership of the Tankerville Arms with local investors Franco and Lina Rumoro. Mr Tabet recently put his five-bedroom Toorak home up for sale with a $20 million asking price. He was one of three investors in the Aussie Leisure Group, which owned pubs such as the Tea Gardens Hotel in Sydney’s Bondi Junction, sold for a record $38 million in 2014. The Tankerville Arms is being marketed by Cropley Commercial’s Steve Cropley and George Iliopulos in conjunction with CBRE Hotel’s Scott Callow & CBRE’s Mark Wizel who said there was “significant development potential given the site’s location”. The hotel includes 49 gaming machines, a TAB, bistro and first-floor function room

The businesswoman known as Miss Maud has revealed an ambitious plan to potentially double her chain of coffee shops and pastry houses. Maud Edmiston claimed rumours she was leaving the hospitality industry after putting her flagship city hotel and restaurant on the market this week could not be further from the truth. She said she would use the proceeds — expected to be about $10 million — to add up to 17 coffee shops to her chain, though she declined to reveal a time frame for the expansion.