After 30 years in the industry, Julian Gerner is selling Morgan’s Sorrento and moving on to the next stage of his career.
Publican Julian Gerner is bowing out of the hospitality industry, stating that it is time for a new stage in his professional life.
“As someone who has seen it all, the good, the bad, and some of the ugly, it is time to try something fresh. I love Sorrento, I love Morgan’s and I love the hospitality industry, but the time has come for me to close this chapter in my life, and I am looking forward to whatever life brings next,” Gerner said.
Gerner entered the industry in the 1990s while studying at university, and purchased his first pub in 1997. He owned a number of venues throughout Melbourne, and was the director of the Public House Group and the Melbourne Pub Group.
In 2013, he resigned from the role with the Melbourne Pub Group to make a sea change. Gerner decided to settle in Sorrento and has since started his family there. Located on the Port Phillip Coast, Sorrento is a popular destination for beach-loving Victorians, and Gerner had holidayed there since his youth. In the same year of his move, Gerner purchased Morgan’s Sorrento Restaurant and Bar. He subsequently purchased the Continental Hotel in 2015, which was sold in 2019.
Gerner has stated that after 30 years, he feels it is time to pass the torch to the younger generation of publicans. He also expressed his excitement for this next chapter in his life. This new step for Gerner will been finalised with the sale of Morgan’s Sorrento Restaurant and Bar, his final property.
Morgan’s Sorrento encompasses the former beer garden of the Koonya Hotel, which was built in 1876, and the Morgan’s building, built in 1927. The venue holds one of only four hotel licences in the esplanade precinct and boasts 40 metres of waterfront frontage. It underwent a $3 million refurbishment in 2018 and currently has 12 years left on the lease. The leasehold sale is being managed by CBRE’s Scott Callow and Mathew George.
“Sorrento is a tourism destination that continues to skyrocket, as do median house prices and population growth,” Callow said.