A new comer to pub ownership has acquired The Lucky Hotel in Newcastle, NSW for around $20 million.
Martin Scott and family will become the new owners of the hotel, which has been owned and operated by sisters Haley Van de Stadt and Blake Nash since 2016. Scott is the Australian head of Swiss private equity firm, Partners Group.
Van de Stadt and Nash said they had loved their time as custodians of the Hotel, but felt “the time is right for us to focus on our families and let the incoming operator take the hotel to its next chapter”.
The sale was managed by JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group’s vice president, Kate MacDonald, and managing director, John Musca.
MacDonald said: “The Lucky Hotel is an outstanding hospitality asset in the heart of the developing East End of Newcastle.
“Very rarely do you come across such an impeccable building restoration, inclusive of 30 ensuite rooms, with the added benefit of 17 gaming machines.”
The Lucky Hotel sits on a corner plot of 820sqm opposite a newly-built light rail connection and contains a large indoor-outdoor beer garden.
The hotel is located just two blocks from Iris Capital’s mixed-use East End development, which is expected to attract significant foot-traffic in coming years.
This sale comes at time of high activity for the Central Coast and Newcastle pub market, and JLL said that interested parties flew in from Sydney and Melbourne to inspect The Lucky Hotel.
The Hotel has a long history in Newcastle. Originally, a pub called ‘The Bank Hotel’ occupied the site 1860, but was demolished in 1877. The current building, first known as ‘The Oxford Hotel’, was constructed in 1880.
Tooth and Company, once a major brewer in the region, purchased the Hotel in 1977, and changed its name to The Lucky Country, presumably after Donald Horne’s seminal book of the same title.
The Lucky Country was previously an important venue in the city’s live music scene, before being mothballed in 2002. The McCloy Group, a local property developer, purchased the Hotel in 2008, and restored the building. It reopened in 2014 as ‘The Lucky’.