Ballina hotel sold for $31m to Sydney investor
Sydney publican Colin Peter Parras has bought one of Ballina’s best known hospitality venues, The Shaws Bay Hotel & Fenwick House for about $31 million from long-time owners the Hayter family.
The sale of the picturesque and historic venue overlooking the water at East Ballina extends a run of major pubs and hotels sold in the Greater Byron Bay Area this year to wealthy city buyers after the Rich List Laundy family bought the Lennox Hotel for more than $40 million, Justin Hemmes’s Merivale Group bought the Cheeky Monkey’s backpackers bar for about $13 million and corporate high-flyers Scott Didier and Scott Emery bought the Great Northern Hotel for close to $80 million.
“The Shawsy” as it is known by locals stands on a 6500 square metre site that runs all the way to the beach at 3 Brighton Street and is about a 30-minute drive from Byron Bay, arguably the country’s hottest property market.
Owned for more than 30 years by Neville Hayter and his sisters Debbie and Vicky, the property comprises The Shaws Bay Hotel offering a public bar, restaurant, gaming room with 14 machines and beer garden as well as a period mansion Fenwick House, dating back to 1886, and considered one the best example of opulent Victorian Italianate architecture in the region.
The new owner Parras Hospitality is the investment vehicle of Colin Peter Parras.
Mr Parras and publican Andrew Lazarus own the El Toro Hotel in Warwick Farm, which they bought from the previously listed Lantern Hotels Group in 2015 for $24 million.
Mr Parras is not to be confused with another prominent Sydney publican Colin M. Parras, who owns venues like Paddington’s well-known Four in Hand.
The sale of the Shaws Bay Hotel & Fenwick House was brokered by JLL’s John Musca, Ben McDonald and Kate MacDonald.
It sold less than a month after being listed, amid a surge of investment into the pub sector by hoteliers and investors.
“Under new custodianship, the assets are primed for a fully integrated renovation and rebirthing proposition that will see the evolution of an exciting hospitality precinct offer, commensurate with their spectacular location,” Mr Musca said.
Fenwick House, he said, was suited to a number of value-add operating opportunities, including as a boutique hotel, co-working or commercial office or function centre subject to necessary council approvals.
Mr Musca said JLL had sold more than $250 million of hotels and pubs on the North Coast in the latest property boom to hit the region.
