Last week, Savills Hotels announced that ALH had purchased two hotels in regional Queensland – the Victoria Hotel in Goondiwindi, and the Queens Beach Motor Hotel in Bowen.
The two separate transactions took place off-market, with Leon Alaban of Savills Hotels taking charge of both sales. He was assisted on the Victoria Hotel sale by colleagues Christian Tsalikis and Tony Bargwanna.
An award-winner
The Victoria Hotel in Goondiwindi was sold by the Klein family, who have owned the hotel since 2006. The Kleins saved the early 1900s pub from demolition at the time, after the building had been deemed dangerous. Instead they did a massive rebuild, and since then the hotel has won multiple awards from both the QHA and AHA National for its accommodation, hotel bar, and community service. John Klein was also named Hotelier of the Year at the 2017 QHA Awards.
The Victoria Hotel offering comprises a gaming room with 28 EGMs, multiple bars, a function room, bistro, drive-through bottleshop and accommodation rooms on the first floor.
Goondiwindi is an inland border town between Queensland and New South Wales, located 350km from Brisbane. The town has a population of 5500.
A tourist’s haven
ALH’s other recent Queensland acquisition is the Queens Beach Motor Hotel in Bowen, a coastal town in the Whitsundays region. The hotel had been owned by a local private consortium since 2015.
While one of several pubs located within Bowen, it is the only one located in the vicinity of Queens Beach and is adjacent to the Queens Beach Tourist Village, as well as a local caravan park and other accommodation units, and thus is well-positioned to capitalise on tourist trade.
The hotel is also set to benefit from the expansion of the nearby Abbot Point Port, due to the approval of the Carmichael Coal Mine.
The Queens Beach Motor Hotel sits on a 1.18 ha corner site, and its facilities include a sports bar, lounge bar, gaming room with 19 EGMs, function room, beer garden, two DOSAs, a drive-through bottleshop and 45 motel rooms.
Tsalikis said the acquisitions were good strategic buys for ALH.
“[They’re] quality assets in good regional towns, they also represented their [ALH’s] first acquisition in each respective town.”
These two sales are also the first ALH acquisitions under the new Endeavour Group business, after the merging of ALH and Endeavour Drinks on 4 February.