Chatswood Hotel, located in Sydney’s North, has been sold to a local family in a sale overseen by JLL, bringing JLL’s total sales over the last fortnight to $115m.
Chatswood Hotel is situated in Sydney’s Lower North Shore, which is seeing significant growth in residential density as well as commuter growth thanks to the Chatswood train and bus interchange. The pub is benefits from a central location within Chatswood’s thriving CBD and directly opposite Chatswood Railway Station.
The venue was originally called the Chelsea Hotel, and was recently rebranded to Chatswood Hotel. The hotel was last sold by Gallagher Hotels for $30.5m in 2022, and previously by Solotel in 2021. This latest sale was overseen by JLL Managing Director, Ben McDonald and Senior Vice President Kate MacDonald, who were both involved in the 2021 sale.
When Gallager Hotels purchased the venue in 2021, Patrick Gallagher was initially drawn to the pub’s location and the venue’s potential.
“It’s a nice area and the clientele is very similar to the Union in North Sydney. It’s a freehold (strata), it’s a medium-sized investment, its gaming had space for more entitlements, and its food was leased out to a third party, which we could take over,” he said.
Though the new owners have not been identified, JLL has confirmed that the hotel has been purchased by a local family with significant interests in the pub space. Their plans for the venue include expanding the pub’s trading footprint and introducing a branded sports bar and all-weather beer garden.
MacDonald said that there is more room for the venue to expand under its new owners.
“With strong food and beverage potential coupled with 30 EGMs and an efficient operational footprint, the sale campaign generated over 50 enquiries including interstate hoteliers seeking exposure to the NSW pub market. The genuine trading upside via existing DA approval and recent two-hour licence extension from 1am to 3am underpinned interest in the opportunity and will no doubt support future earnings growth of the business,” she said.
JLL’s sales figures over the past fortnight are an indication of the strength of the NSW pub market.
“As a firm, JLL’s national pubs platform has transacted in excess of $670m thus far in 2024 with momentum continuing to build into the back end of the year. We anticipate ongoing demand from established hoteliers mixed with opportunistic asset managers to be most active in the coming months as opportunities present themselves in both on and off market situations,” McDonald said.
Ben McDonald will be speaking at the Pub Leaders Summit on Tuesday 10 September on a panel on Adaptive and Viable Business Models. Buy your tickets now.