Capital Gain
Balmain’s Exchange Hotel – the last of the doomed Jon Adgemis-led Public Hospitality Group’s portfolio – is being sold by the receivers, McGrathNicol.
Adgemis’ group collapsed under a mountain of debt last year.
Built in 1885 on the popular peninsula, the 680-square-metre, three-storey property sits on the corner of Beattie and Mullens streets and was converted into serviced offices in 2020.
KPMG banker turned publican Adgemis bought the pub in 2016 for about $6 million and a similar amount was spent on renovations over the years. No current sale price was disclosed, but other pubs in the area sold for about $12 to $15 million.
Balmain, synonymous with pub culture, lacks an upscale hotel, the Exchange is the “perfect tonic”, HTL Property’s Andrew Jolliffe said. He, along with Sam Handy, are selling it.
McGrathNicol was appointed to sell five pubs owned by the failed business last October.
Last week they sold a portfolio of four pubs for a combined $130 million. HTL’s agents sold three of them: the Hotel Diplomat in Potts Point, the South Bondi Hotel formerly known as Noah’s Backpackers, and Empire Hotel in Annandale. Millinium Capital Managers’ Tom Wallace was the buyer.
The fourth, Claridge House, a 2169-square-metre, nine-storey inner-city hotel with a pub at ground level and rooms above in Darlinghurst also sold last week for $19 million to Universal Hotels. Colliers’ James Cowan and Karen Wales acted for the receivers on that deal.
Bill and Mario
Luna Park’s owner, Oscars hospitality group, has expanded its footprint in South Sydney after snapping up a strategic Kogarah development site from Telstra for $4.3 million on a tight 4.14 per cent yield.
The Gravanis brothers, Bill and Mario, who founded Oscars in the 1980s, have piled into the hospitality and accommodation sector, purchasing more than 30 assets ranging from small suburban pubs to larger properties, including the Novotel hotels in Wollongong, Sydney’s Brighton Beach and on the Gold Coast.
In September last year, the group swooped on a boutique office building in the Barangaroo South precinct on Sydney Harbour, buying it from Lendlease in a deal worth about $30 million.
Their latest purchase, at 2A Belgrave Street, is a three-storey building on 1267 square-metre site in a mixed-use zone, features which make it an attractive proposition for redevelopment. The property has a triple net lease to Telstra. Colliers’ James Cowan and Trent Gallagher advised on the deal with Urbis.
Across town, AirTrunk founder and chief executive Robin Khuda has been out raiding prime Mosman real estate. His luxury property development business, Ondas, has swooped on one of the suburb’s prominent corner properties at 713-715 Military Road, paying about $20 million.
It was the first time in more than 30 years the property, owned by a local family for more than three decades, had sold. Colliers’ Tom Appleby managed the transaction.
Dame does deal
The University of Notre Dame Australia is offloading four inner-Sydney properties with a collective price guide around $60 million, as it undergoes a broad asset review.
The uni’s portfolio includes 22-24 City Road, 1-7 Moorgate Street, and 29-35 Shepherd Street. Another property, 142-152 Broadway, was Tanya Plibersek’s former office. The Minister for Social Services and Federal Member for Sydney’s former office is now an underdeveloped site.
The properties are in Sydney’s multi-billion-dollar Tech Central and university precinct. CBRE’s Angus Windred, Callum Cooke, and Mitch Noonan are handling the sale. They said the zoning characteristics are expected to attract strong interest.
Glebe sale
A disused warehouse on tightly held Bridge Road in Sydney’s Glebe is on the market for a price around $10 million.
The property at 43-47 Bridge Road, known as Orient House, is a two-storey building on the doorstep of Sydney’s CBD, just down the road from the newly opened Sydney Fish Market. Knight Frank agents Anthony Pirrottina and Demi Carigliano, with McGrath founder John McGrath, are selling on behalf of two private investors who have owned the property since the late 1990s.
Contact carolynannecummins@gmail.com
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