Sale price for Captain Cook pub doubles to $35m since 2020
A second Captain Cook-named hotel in Sydney has changed hands this month, after prominent publican Kent Walker bought the Botany venue for about $35 million from Warren Livingstone, founder of sports tourism company Fanatics.
The Botany Captain Cook Hotel sold for more than double the $17 million paid for it by Mr Livingstone’s Highclere Hospitality Co in 2020, though he has extensively renovated the 1114 Botany Road pub, which dates back to 1880.
The sale is in sharp contrast to that of the four-storey Captain Cook Hotel near the Allianz Stadium in Paddington, which pub baron Bruce Mathieson sold for just $6.6 million as an accommodation-only offering, having paid $13.5 million less than two years ago. But this sale excluded 15 poker machine entitlements, which Mr Mathieson’s BMG Group retained.
A third Captain Cook Hotel on historic Millers Point above Barangaroo is the oldest of three Sydney watering holes bearing the famous explorer’s moniker, having opened its doors in 1874.
Originally called the Captain Cook Inn, the Botany-based pub was built in 1880 by NSW railway worker and blacksmith James Clarke, who “made and lost several small fortunes”.
The red-brick pub includes a Will Dangar-designed beer garden, 30 gaming machines and 11 ensuite motel rooms. It sold with a sought-after late-trading licence.
Incoming owner Mr Walker owns another 10 venues spread across Sydney and Wollongong, including Hotel Seven Hills, the Coolibah Hotel and the Corrimal Hotel.
Alongside pubs, Mr Walker and his wife Desley own an impressive collection of Sydney homes, including a penthouse at The Rocks bought for $19 million in 2022, a holiday home at Whale Beach purchased for $12 million in 2016, and an 1890s house in Wahroonga (once owned by INXS band member Andrew Farriss).
Mr Walker declined to comment on the acquisition of the Captain Cook Hotel when contacted by The Australian Financial Review.
It is understood Mr Walker is a long-standing member of the “Fifteen Club”, a collection of high-powered Sydney publicans including Rich Lister Arthur Laundy, former Wallaby Bill Young and veteran investor Kim Maloney, who meet for a lunch once a quarter. The club has been operating for more than 30 years, and the venue for the lunch is rotated across pubs owned by its members.
The vendor of the Captain Cook Botany hotel, Mr Livingstone, is no stranger to big-ticket pub deals, having paid $42 million in 2022 for the Rose & Crown Hotel in Parramatta.
His Highclere Hospitality Co also owns and operates Hyde Park House in Darlinghurst, and the Australian Hotel in McGraths Hill among other venues.
The sale of the Captain Cook Hotel in Botany was brokered by HTL directors Dan Dragicevich and Andrew Jolliffe. It’s the 11th NSW pub sold by the specialist real estate firm in the June quarter.
Having also brokered the $20 million sale of The Light Brigade hotel at the top of Sydney’s Oxford Street to the Laundy family in June, Mr Jolliffe said: “The old hands in the industry know where we are in the cycle, and they are buying.”
He added that transaction volumes were significantly up on the same period last year. “The Captain Cook exhibits all the fundamentals of a sustainable pub business model,” Mr Dragicevich said.
