By Vanessa Cavasinni, editor Australian Hotelier
Colonial Leisure Group (CLG) have made their first foray into Queensland’s capital, with the purchase of The Fox Hotel in Brisbane’s South Bank precinct.
“The purchase of The Fox Hotel is certainly one of the biggest pub acquisitions we’ve done and we are very excited to be entering the Brisbane market,” said CLG national general manager Lawrence Dowd. “The Fox is one of the top trading pubs in Brisbane and it will fit nicely into our diverse portfolio”.
The off-market purchase was conducted by JLL Hotels & Hospitality Associate – Investment, Tom Gleeson, and National Director, John Musca. The Fox Hotel is one of Brisbane’s liveliest pubs, situated on one of Brisbane’s busiest thoroughfares and with huge trading capabilities. The Fox Hotel includes a public bar, bistro, a gaming room with 10 EGMs, multiple function spaces and a large rooftop bar.
“The growth within both the venue and surrounding area has been exceptional and combining South Brisbane’s enormous infrastructure and development work with CLG’s operational nous, all the ingredients exist to take the Fox Hotel to the next level,” stated Gleeson.
CLG also purchased the Newtown Hotel for $9 million at the beginning of the year, in Sydney’s booming late night precinct from The Keystone Group. Musca said the move into eastern seaboard capital cities was indicative of a trend between the larger hotel operators.
“It was a real privilege to have executed the two largest food and beverage centric leasehold hotel sales nationally for some time, and to facilitate the introduction of market-leading operators CLG, and their raft of brands, into two new capital city locations,” he stated.
“These sales highlight national hoteliers’ and hospitality operators continued appetite for portfolio spread across capital city locations and large, high profile opportunities of this calibre offering invaluable branding and trading opportunities are rare. The transaction represented a perfect fit for both vendor and purchaser.”
CLG have stated that in the short term they will operate The Fox Hotel in its current form, but have plans to move the focus to the food and beverage offering of the hotel, to bring it into line with its national hotel strategy.