Iris Capital acquire Tiger Bar Hotel Hurstville
JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group have announce the biggest Sydney pub deal for nearly six years with the simultaneous sale of the Hunters Hill Hotel and Tiger Bar Hotel Hurstville.
Iris Capital and Gallagher Hotel Management have bought two key Sydney hotels with a combined value of $65 million, to expand their footprint in the hot pub sector.
The sales come at an interesting time for the hotel industry with Redcape groups mooted $700m sale of their 26 venue hotel portfolio to Moelis Capital, John Singleton’s Australian Pub Fund continuing their attempts for a portfolio sell down and KKR, debt provider to the ill-fated leasehold Dixon group, reportedly seeking capital solutions after recently shelving IPO plans.
National Director John Musca who negotiated the sale stated that "the asset transactions are manifest examples astute divergence in investment and operating strategies of two highly respected industry stakeholders at a particular point in time, reflecting class-leading thinking on both their parts".
Opened in 2012 the Tiger Bar Hotel resides adjacent to the Hurstville bus and train stations in a precinct benefitting from a new LEP and residential intensification.
It includes public bar, TAB, gaming room and upstairs restaurant and is a consistently high-ranking NSW gaming venue.
Along with the neighboring Ritz and Meridian Hotels, the Tiger Bar has become a cornerstone entrainment venue for the Hurstville Forest Mall retail and business core.
The hotel was purchased by Iris Capital where a change in group focus has seen their property and business empire rapidly expand to include extensive development and broad-acre land interests across NSW.
This includes their recent success in winning the tender to acquire the East-End Newcastle city site master planned to include circa 700 residential apartments, a possible five star hotel and over 10,000m2 of retail space.
The regeneration is considered by many as being a catalyst for the evolution of the Newcastle CBD and has involved extensive community and council consultation.
The Hunters Hill Hotel was central to the most significant town centre redevelopment the precinct has ever seen and was extensively renovated and extended in conjunction with a new mixed-use 55 residential apartment, car park and retail complex in 2014.
The hotel sale included a separate 120 bay carpark and situated on a 5000 sqm site, came with approval to develop 4 more luxury rooftop apartments offering spectacular Harbour Bridge views.
It was purchased by Gallagher Hotel Management who under the careful stewardship of popular and awarded principals Patrick and Angela Gallagher, have steadily emerged as one of the industry's most respected hoteliers.
The group now adds the landmark Hunters Hill asset alongside another of their most recent icon acquisitions the Terrigal Hotel, purchased in May for $28 million.
"Much like the Oaks Hotel in Neutral Bay and the Golden Sheaf Hotel in Double Bay the Hunters Hill Hotel is a cornerstone, integral community establishment and a truly generational asset the likes of which are rarely traded", Mr. Musca said.
