NEWS PROPERTY
An East Coast beachside resort with roots to the 1850s is set to sell for the first time since 2006. Bicheno’s Diamond Island Resort occupies 2.44 hectares of coastland at Redbill Beach, which is famous for the penguin colony that nests along its shoreline every night. It has 26 one, two and three-bedroom villas and is set to fetch between $5 million and $6 million. Elders’ Charles Black said interest in the property, which has been owned by a Queensland-based family, had been “solid”. “We’re dealing with a couple of parties now at the pointy end of the campaign,” Mr Black said.
Gloomy economic conditions and the dilapidated state of St Kilda’s main thoroughfare of Fitzroy Street is weighing on the Prince of Wales Hotel, which is back on the market with its price tag cut by up to $15 million. The once-grungy Prince is for sale with a discounted price tag of $30 million. The four-storey art deco pub, on the corner of Acland Street, hit the market last year with an expected price between $45 million and $50 million, but there were no buyers at that level. Fitzroy Street’s travails have undermined the hotel’s value, despite a recent multi-million renovation that restored its art deco features. Back in 2015, the Jackalope Group bought the prized landmark for a bumper $44.5 million from experienced hospitality operators and owners, Lisa and John Van Haandel. It was earning $2.3 million a year from seven different venues and retailers, chief among them the highly acclaimed restaurant Circa. By 2017, Circa was gone and the more casual Prince Dining Room took its place. The venue won a Good Food hat last year under chef Daniel Cooper, but he has already left. Instead, Sydney chefs Mitch Orr and Ben Parkinson are now making the menu 20 years after Circa’s debut. The Ryan family’s Melbourne Pub Group, which also own and operate the Mitchelton and Hubert estates in the Yarra Valley, has a long lease on the hotel which includes a 39-room boutique hotel, the Rain Room venue and Black Star Pastry. It now returns approximately $2.1 million in rent. The 13,258 square metre hotel is on a 4269 square metre piece of real estate just a short walk from St Kilda Beach. Fitzroy Street has struggled in the past 10 years, along with the retail end of Acland Street, as high rents and ratty street life put a dark cloud on the strips’ sunny disposition. The coronavirus pandemic didn’t help, although around the corner the Esplanade is still pulling a young crowd and Italian eatery D.O.C has opened at in Tim Gurner’s Saint Moritz development. New hotels are proposed behind some of the hoardings on Fitzroy Street and the award-winning Pride Centre is drawing new patrons. Hatted chef Karen Martini is up the street at Saint George and Cafe di Stasio has re-opened with a gallery planned. It’s not the only property that Jackalope is jettisoning. Also on the market is the splendid Maria George building at 179-181 Flinders Lane where the group had planned to build a new hotel alongside its neighbour. But last year it sold No.175 to restaurateur Chris Lucas for $23.5 million. The Maria George building is expected to fetch around $15 million. Cushman & Wakefield agents Oliver Hay, Daniel Wolman and Leon Ma have the listing.
Lincoln Club members have voted overwhelmingly to sell the pub business it operates from The Famous Grouse Hotel. A special general meeting was held on Sunday to determine the fate of the Gerald St business, which club members were told had lost money for the past two years. Club officials painted a gloomy outlook for the future with difficult trading conditions combined with being told by its landlord the lease would not be extended beyond 2029. The landlord said the hotel had been brought into “disrepute” over its liquor licensing issues. Police and the council liquor licensing unit had opposed the pub’s licence renewal, prompted by issues with university student-focused events, and the Mr Grouse contest. The pub eventually kept its licence with conditions. But it cost about $70,000 in legal fees, impacting on the profitability of the pub, members were told. The Lincoln Club has operated the business at the Grouse since 2009 under the motto ‘the club in a pub’. The business is operated through its company Famous Grouse 2009 Ltd.
Jazz impresario and flamboyant property developer Albert Dadon has offloaded his vacant 35-storey hotel complex opposite the Flagstaff Gardens for around $70 million. The serviced apartment hotel, Oaks Melbourne on William Suites – a name which never easily rolled off the tongue – will likely get a new name when the new owner steps in. Records show the buyer is the locally based Chen family, who operate a couple of hotels in Melbourne. The deal was negotiated by JLL’s Peter Harper and Nick MacFie, in conjunction with Colliers. KordaMentha Real Estate represented the vendor, Dadon’s property company Ubertas.
A local private investor has snapped up the Tolarno Hotel at 42 Fitzroy Street, which comes with several Mirka Mora murals, for $6 million.The 37-room hotel is leased to La Vie Hotels while the restaurant, established by artist Mirka Mora and her art dealer husband Georges in the 1960s, is vacant. Vendors James Fagan and Bernard Corser bought the property in 1995 for $1.01 millionMaintaining the property’s arts history, the hotel rooms upstairs are filled with 165 paintings collected via the Tolarno graduate art prize. Mora’s murals range from the 1950s to her last work in 2007. The vacant restaurant was most recently occupied by Bergerac. Famed chefs Leon Massoni and Iain Hewitson once cooked there and Grossi Florentino owner Guy Grossi learned to cook in its kitchen in the 1970s. CBRE’s Scott Callow and Nathan Mufale brokered the deal.
Prime Value’s Shakespeare Property Group has put The Pullman Cairns International on the block in a move that could reap it $100m, industry players say.
The company picked up the hotel in 2015 for $75m and it underwent a $17m refurbishment in 2021. A management change is possible as it is available with vacant possession.
The five-star city centre hotel is on a 8139sq m site and has 324 guest rooms, 11 conference and meeting rooms, a lobby bar, day spa and gymnasium facilities, and basement parking for 184 cars.
CBRE Hotels’ Michael Simpson, Wayne Bunz and Hayley Manvell are managing the sale.
Former Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon has listed his historic 1864-built Blue's Point Hotel in North Sydney for sale, with sources saying similar pubs have fetched about $10m.
Jon Adgemis' Empire Hotel in Annadale has come off the market, jest weeks after lenders pushed the pub baron to list the asset. Savills confirmed the pub had come off the market, after the Empire Hotel was listed two weeks ago amid a dispute between Mr Adgemis and lenders. Mr Adgemis snapped up the pub in late 2021, in a $20m deal, with valuers tipping the hotel could be worth as much as $40m today.
