Parras Hospitality, led by Sydney publican Colin Peter Parras, has bought the Shaws Bay Hotel in Ballina on the NSW North Coast for around $31 million from the Hayter family who have owned the venue for 30 years.
JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group’s John Musca, Ben McDonald and Kate MacDonald who brokered the deal, said the hotel was sold in “rapid fire time”.
“The Shaws Bay purchasers confidently backed their vision, expeditiously moving to exceed the owner’s pricing expectations and cognisant that a significant capital deployment can undoubtedly deliver a very special hospitality asset in the future,” Musca said.
“Naturally there’s always a lot of emotion that accompanies long-term owners farewelling a family asset, so realising a great result and seeing its custodianship pass to a new and respectful stakeholder is a fulfilling outcome.”
The Shaws Bay Hotel is just 25 minutes from Byron Bay where JLL made another major sale earlier this year when The Great Northern Hotel which was sold by the Mooney family for around $80m after 30 years of ownership.
The Shaws Bay Hotel has 14 gaming machines and together with Fenwick House manor occupies a 6,518sqm absolute waterfront site with B1 Neighbourhood Centre zoning.
The hotel is also positioned at the entrance to the East Ballina growth corridor and is expected to benefit from the current property boom in the region. According to JLL, Fenwick House, which has been used as a bar and boarding house up until now, presents value-add operating potential.
“Under new custodianship, the assets are both deserved and primed for a fully-integrated renovation and rebirthing proposition that will see the evolution of an exciting hospitality precinct offer, commensurate with their spectacular location,” Musca said.
The hotel investment market continues to mature in its recognition that there are no yield benchmarks for “irreplaceable coastal pub hotels”, with business cases differing for location, according to JLL.
“From Merivale to Redcape and the Laundy Group, a raft of big name private and public industry stakeholders have secured themselves prime hospitality assets in the globally recognised region over the past 18 months.”