Endeavour takes charge of Darwin's Beachfront Hotel
ASX-listed pub and liquor giant Endeavour Group has bolstered its presence in Darwin after acquiring the leasehold to the city’s Beachfront Hotel for about $11 million from long-term owner Doug Sallis.
The large-format venue overlooking Nightcliff Beach, at Rapid Creek just to the north of the Darwin CBD, brings in annual revenues of more than $10 million from its food, beverage, gaming and drive-through liquor outlets.
Mr Sallis, a two-decade veteran of the Darwin hospitality scene, put the property and the business up for sale in February, asking more than $25 million. He will retain ownership of the underlying real estate.
The sale of the leasehold was brokered by Brent McCarthy and Glenn Price of HTL Property.
The acquisition will give Endeavour’s ALH Hotels – the country’s biggest pub operator with almost 350 venues – its fifth property in the greater Darwin area.
The Darwin acquisition follows Endeavour’s acquisition of the Empire Hotel in Adelaide and the Grand Tasman Hotel in Port Lincoln this year as part of plans to grow its hotels business, where trading has been improving since the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.
In April, Endeavour partnered with fund manager Warakirri to add the Josef Chromy Estate near Launceston to its Pinnacle Drinks division.
In NSW, Newcastle’s status as a pub investment hotspot has been enhanced following a third notable sale in less than two months.
The latest venue to change hands – for about $9 million – is the Beauford Hotel, a corner pub in the suburb of Mayfield.
After more than 30 years of ownership it was sold by the Kearney family to a local owner-operator in a deal put together by HTL Property’s Blake Edwards.
The deal follows the Merewether Beach Hotel setting a price record for a Newcastle venue after being acquired by Sydney investor Glenn Piper this month for about $40 million.
Also buying into the Newcastle scene, the Gravanis brothers, owners of Oscars Hotels, paid about $35 million in April for the Caves Beach Hotel about 30km down the coast at Caves Beach. The Merewether and Caves Beach deals were brokered by HTL.
The Beauford Hotel stands on a 1473sq m block at 39 Maitland Rd and includes a bistro, gaming facilities, a drive-thru bottle shop, beer garden and 15 accommodation rooms.
HTL Property managing director Andrew Jolliffe said the investment lens for astute buyers of hotels had widened to include sub-metro locations.
“We see this phenomenon being sustained for some time,” he said.
Highlighting the appetite for hotels outside the capital cities, a Sydney-based food and beverage hotelier has bought the Alpine Inn in Khancoban in the Snowy Mountains from long-term owner Ignazio Mondello.
The sale included eight gaming machine entitlements, a 36-room motel, residential house and associated pub infrastructure on 1.6ha of land.
Selling agent Greg Jeloudev from JLL Hotels said the new owner – who he declined to identify – planned an extensive renovation on the pub and motel rooms.
In another regional deal, the Red Steer Hotel and Motel in Wagga Wagga was acquired by a Sydney hotelier. It was brokered by HTL Property’s Xavier Plunket.
