Ancient Briton pub owners call last drinks after 25 years
The long-time owners of the popular Ancient Briton pub in Sydney’s inner west are the latest to take advantage of the demand for the sector, which has seen close to $2 billion worth of assets change hand in the past year.
Having owned and operated the AB, as it’s known by locals, the private Seeto family have opted to test the waters for the 225 Glebe Point Road pub after having fielded “numerous” unsolicited offers.
The patriarch Victor Seeto said it was a “unanimous resolution from within the family that it’s time to sell”.
“It’s hard to believe that our family has owned and operated the AB Hotel for almost a quarter of a century,” Seeto said.
“It holds a special place in our family’s heart, but it’s time to pass the torch onto another hotelier with fresh energy and focus that can elevate the hotel to its rightful place within the local community.”
It was a unanimous resolution from within the family that it’s time to sell.
The most recent sale in Glebe was by former Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon of his popular Nag’s Head pub for around $12 million to the Momento Hospitality group. In July former Wallabies front rower Bill Young added to his family’s pub empire with the purchase of the popular Glebe watering hole, the Friend in Hand, for an estimated price of $10 million.
No price was disclosed for the AB, but similar assets with upgrade potential on high traffic routes have traded for as much as $28 million.
HTL Property’s Sam Handy, Dan Dragicevich and Andrew Jolliffe are advising the Seeto family and said the higher price expectation is due to the AB’s 481 square metre land holding and its multiple floors at the corner of Bridge Street and Glebe Point Road.
Having been impacted by the global pandemic the pub operated with 85 per cent of its trading areas shut down and regularly closed by 9pm. But a resurgence of patrons has led to the pub to start trading again at 6am to midnight.
“The Seeto family have not only weathered that storm but have set the business up very well for the next operator, and we are expecting the existing weight of unsatisfied capital still left in the market to deliver a strong outcome,” Handy said.
The pub sector has been the hottest in town with sales of asset from privately run to large-scale development sites all commanding high prices. One of the most anticipated sale in Sydney is the Oaks pub in Neutral with a price tag of $185 million through JLL.
JLL and Kay & Burton are also selling Lamaro’s Hotel at 273-279 Cecil Street, South Melbourne, which includes three high-end residential apartments, purposely built across the first and top floors of the property. It sits on a prominent 509 square metre corner position in one of South Melbourne’s residential pockets.
JLL’s senior vice president, hotel investment sales Will Connolly said buyer demand in Melbourne’s hotel investment market is “thankfully showing no sign of slowing down”.
“An icon like Lamaro’s Hotel comes to market perfectly poised, at a time when demand currently outweighs supply,” Connolly said.
