By Vanessa Cavasinni, editor Australian Hotelier
The Long Jetty Hotel, on the Central Coast of New South Wales, has been purchased by the Laundy syndicate.
The hotel was purchased for an undisclosed amount by a syndicate that includes noted publican Arthur Laundy, Sean O’Hara and Lee Green. With several hotels already owned and operated in Sydney, this is the third regional hotel purchase made by the syndicate, which also owns and operates hotels in Bateau Bay and South Dubbo.
The hotel was sold via EOI campaign by Gerry Quinlan of Manenti Quinlan & Associates and Mike Wheatley of Knight Frank. It took three rounds of negotiations to conclude the deal. While the sale figure has not been made public, it has been revealed that the sale had a yield of approximately 11.5 per cent – a happy result for vendor Bruce MacDougal, whose family operates several hotels in New South Wales.
The sale of Long Jetty Hotel attracted much interest from hoteliers in both Sydney and Newcastle, and from developers who were looking to maximise the potential of the 2491m2 site. Eventually the Laundy syndicate won out, and will soon take over the operations of the Central Coast hotel that includes 15 gaming machines and an on-site car park.
As a tourism hub, the Central Coast is currently experiencing growth as an area, as reflected in the large amount of interest in the sale. “Recent sales of Central Coast hotels are now being tightly held by leading operators,” commented Wheatley.
Arthur Laundy agreed, stating: “The tight yields being achieved in the Sydney-area regional hotels represent real value.”
Laundy also owns regional hotels in Wagga Wagga, Orange and Dubbo.