By Andrew Starke
Sale negotiations are believed to be well advanced on five pubs put to auction on behalf of the Melbourne-based Aussie Leisure Group (ALG), despite all five failing to sell at auction.
Up for sale are the iconic Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel in Sydney and the Magnum’s hotel and nightclub in Airlie Beach.
Also on offer is the Commercial Tavern at Ayr near Townsville, the Cambridge Tavern at Fairfield in Sydney, and the Iron Horse Hotel at Cardiff in Newcastle.
CBRE Hotels and Burgess Rawson are steering the negotiations to sell the freehold investment hotels located across both Queensland and NSW.
CBRE Hotels director, Joel Fisher, said the auction had attracted good interest and while there are been no sales under the hammer, post auction negotiations were well advanced on all five properties.
At least two of the hotels were expected to change hands by the end of this week but a spokesperson for CBRE told TheShout that there had been no new developments this afternoon (Apr 23).
The Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel was passed in at $15.9 million while the Iron Horse Hotel was passed in at $9.7 million.
Both properties were passed in to Sydney based investors.
The Cambridge Tavern was withdrawn from auction to allow negotiations to take place with a number of interested parties.
The Commercial Tavern at Ayr was passed in for $7.8 million to a North Queensland-based investor.
Magnum’s was passed in on a vendors bid of $15.75 million.
In other news, the Oxford Hotel in Darlinghurst has sold for about $11.5 million to an unnamed buyer.
National director, pub investment sales at Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, John Musca, said there had been over 100 enquires about the property with eight offers received.
“The market continues to polarise and the sale highlighted that yields are of little relevance in a bespoke market stalked by strategic and motivated buyers with renewed access to debt,” he said.
“There was a number of disappointed buyers for the hotel after what was a keenly contested sale programme for a quality, low risk operating opportunity.”
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