In the past week,veteran hotelier and former Wallaby player Bill Young has continued the shake-up of his business with the sale of the 1827-year-old heritage-listed Wisemans Inn Hotel to Sam Arnaout’s Iris Capital,for about $10 million.
The sprawling inn sits on 5100 square metres of land,with views of the Wisemans Ferry waterway,and comes with the usual public bars,bistro,gaming machines,and 11 accommodation rooms.
The Five Islands Hotel was sold by Ludlow Hospitality fund.Supplied
It has been owned by Young Hotels for nearly 20 years,but the family has been readjusting the portfolio with the recent purchase of Bar Broadway in Chippendale for $36 million and the sale in May of his Friend in Hand hotel in Glebe.
Arnaout says he intends to take advantage of the development in Wisemans Ferry and the surrounding area,which includes the $150 million Wisemans Surf Lodge.
HTL Property advised on the Wisemans Inn sale with managing director,Andrew Jolliffe saying the sale takes place at a time in the hospitality indexed property market where 2022 has recorded the highest number of sales by both volume and dollar value quantum.
“Consolidated sales will comfortably exceed $2 billion nationally this calendar year,and our assessment of the transaction-based look through to December is prosperous for all industry stakeholders,” HTL Property national director,Dan Dragicevich added.
In another deal through HTL Property’s Sam Handy,Dragicevich and Jolliffe,Ludlow Hospitality Fund,founded by veteran hotelier Paddy Coughlan,sold the refurbished Wollongong-based large-format Five Islands Hotel to Kennedy’s Endeavour Hotels. No price was disclosed,but similar deals have reaped about $27 million.
“Ludlow investors are pleased with the process run by HTL and the resultant outcome on the Five Islands Hotel campaign,” Coughlan said.
“In addition,we wish Mark and his team every future success with a hotel now positioned to enjoy the benefits of the surging population base in the Illawarra region.”
The prominent 2314 square metre hotel,complete with a 24-hour liquor licence and 22 gaming machines,was acquired by Coughlan’s Ludlow vehicle in June 2021 when it purchased the asset from Oscars Hotels.
“Not surprisingly,we enjoyed multiple offers to purchase the Five Islands Hotel,with the majority of the interest coming from Sydney investors looking to take strategic positions in growth corridors radiating outwards from the traditional metro core,” Handy said.
The pub sector has been one of the busiest in the past year,even during the global pandemic when all properties were forced to close.
Agents and buyers have said the demand comes from the cash generated in the majority by food and beverage sales and capital growth of the underlying land. A desire by the public to get out and mingle closer to home has also generated demand for the suburban pubs.
One of the largest sales being processed through JLL hotel is the Oaks at Neutral Bay,with a price tag of about $175 million. The first round of bids closed last week,and a range of operators including Justin Hemmes’ Merivale and the Laundy family are all said to have run the ruler over the North Shore-based asset.
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