NEWS PROPERTY

Private investors have exchanged the 21-room Cook’s Endeavour Motor Inn, a Tweed Heads business and freehold property, for $3.25 million. The 1980s Motor Inn at 26-28 Frances Street features a four-bedroom manager’s residence, commercial kitchen and pool and spa. The new investor-owner will continue to operate the motel located at 1859sqm site. Colliers International’s James Crawford sold the property.

An historic Cairns CBD pub has hit the market. Built in 1926, the Barrier Reef Hotel on Wharf St is one of the first buildings seen by cruise ship passengers after arriving in Cairns. The traditional-style watering hole is built on 530sq m of freehold land and is opposite the Reef Hotel Casino. It is a TAB venue and features a modern gaming room with 35 poker machines. Matt Carless of Knight Frank said the Barrier Reef Hotel was a fine investment opportunity.

Listed pub-owner Hotel Property Investments (HPI) is selling two regional pubs, the Hotel Allen in Townsville and the Grafton Hotel in Cairns, both of which are leased to Westfarmers subsidiary, Liquorland. The hotels had a combined December 2016 book value of $19.2 million. CRE Hotels’ Daniel Dragicevich, Paul Fraser and Glenn Price are selling the agents alongside CBRE’s Darren Collins.

The O’Neill family is selling the 80-room Airlie Beach Hotel on Queensland’s Whitsunday Coast. Market expectations are about $25 million for the hotel, which offers uninterrupted views of the Whitsunday Islands and stands on a 8819sq m waterfront site. CBRE Hotels’ Wayne Bunz, Paul Fraser and Hayley Manvell in conjuction with PRD Nationwide Airlie Beach’s Christie Leet are managing the sale.

A Singapore-based high net worth investor has paid $50 million to buy the 4.5 star Crowne Plaza Perth hotel overlooking the Swan River, in a major boost for the city’s struggling hospitality sector. The 191-room hotel on Terrace Road, operated by UK giant Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), was sold off-market by Hong Kong-backed Avant Hotels Australia. It was acquired by private Singapore company I-Power Management Pte Ltd.

Development of a new $200 million, seven-hectare town centre at Martha Cove on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula has commenced. The development will offer restaurants, cafes and shops to residents of the 94-hectare waterfront residential estate, which was acquired in 2015 for $43 million by Goldman Sachs and Sydney-based Balmain Corporation. They bought it from receivers PPB.

One of Melbourne’s most famous live-music venues, The Esplanade Hotel, has been sold and will receive a major facelift after it was closed almost two years ago and slipped into disrepair. The St Kilda landmark was purchased by prominent hotel owner Sand Hill Road, which owns a large portfolio of inner-city pubs including Richmond’s Terminus Hotel, Prahran Hotel, and Garden State Hotel in the CBD. The deal is expected to be finalised this week, but Sand Hill Road co-founder Andy Mullins declined to make any comment when contacted.

A private investor has swooped on one of Brisbane’s last remaining large format hotels, the Mansfield Tavern, for almost $14 million, with the price reflecting a record yield. The freehold interest of the pub in southeast Brisbane was sold by Neil Dickinson, who recently offloaded the Ivory Tavern at Tweed Heads. The sale of the 20,830sq m land parcel was negotiated by CBRE Hotels’ Glenn Price, Daniel Dragicevich and Paul Fraser.