After 45 years, a popular Sydney watering hole is on the market
After 45 years, plenty of beers and a changing clientele, the owners of the popular Shakespeare Hotel on Sydney’s city fringe have put it up for sale.
Known as the “Shakey”, the Devonshire Street watering hole has been a favourite haunt for local residents and businesses for decades. No price has been declared, but similar sites have sold for about $12 million in what is a very busy pub market.
Sydney local Margaret Hargreaves is selling the pub and will retire after having started her career as a publican with a lease of the Shakespeare in 1975.
After acquiring the freehold in 1978, Margaret moved her husband and four small children into the pub for three months to focus direct attention on the new “flourishing business”.
“I remember tapping the keg on my first day of trade in August, 1975,” she said.
“On that day, we took $69 in sales and the rest is history. The pub has been very good to our family so the decision to sell has been quite overwhelming, but the time is right for a fresh perspective on the Shakey.”
After grappling with the arrival of the light rail, which passes the pub, along with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the family has decided to sell.
JLL senior vice president, Kate MacDonald, executive director John Musca, and vice president Greg Jeloudev are spearheading the sale.
It comes as the pub sector is one of the busiest sectors for investors with more than $2 billion worth of assets changing hands in the past year. The prices are high due to the locations, underlying land value and resurgence of interest from patrons who are keen to go back to their local watering holes.
MacDonald, who recently advised on the sale of the Imperial pub in Erskineville to the Universal Hotels Group for $20 million, said the Shakespeare Hotel represents “possibly the last opportunity to acquire a long-term, family-held pub in Surry Hills”.
It generates income from accommodation, gaming, food and beverage, and sits between Central Station and the upcoming major tech hub development. The pub is also a short walk from Sydney’s Entertainment Quarter, including the newly constructed Allianz Stadium.
Whilst the exclusive agents would not be drawn on price expectations for the pub, MacDonald predicted high levels of interest from a variety of capital sources including high net-worth investors, hotel groups and owner operators perhaps looking to reposition the property.
“With 2023 seeing transaction volumes down on comparative results generated in 2022, JLL are reporting a slight shift in momentum having sold five out of the last six hotels in metropolitan Sydney,” MacDonald said.
“With circa $100 million in sales yet to be announced or in final contract stages it would seem that deal flow is moving as we head into the back half of the year.”
‘I remember tapping the keg on my first day of trade in August, 1975. On that day, we took $69 in sales and the rest is history.’
Another sale is the Bondi Beach Hotel, known as Topikos, which was bought by the fifth-generation hotelier, Edward Ryan. No price was disclosed for the Campbell Parade hotel and restaurant.
It was sold through Andrew Jolliffe, Dan Dragicevich and Xavier Plunkett of HTL Property. The agents said it changed hands at the end of a competitive on-market process.
“Bondi hotels are particularly rare beasts numbering only four in total, and are both consequently and unsurprisingly tightly held as a result,” HTL Property’s managing director Jolliffe said.
Ryan, whose family owns a large pub portfolio, said “having lived locally my whole life provides me with a good perspective on where there might exist market gaps we’d like to explore”.
“I look forward to doing so given the solid platform the current management team have created at the hotel over a number of years,” Ryan said.
