Sydney watering holes Oxford Tavern and Norfolk Hotel seek new publicans
The operator of two well-known inner Sydney pubs is on the hunt for new publicans to take on their lease in a deal that could be worth a combined $1 million.
The Oxford Tavern on New Canterbury Road in Petersham was previously known for pole dancing and half-naked bar staff and was an infamous staple in the Sydney pub scene. It has reinvented itself in recent years as a dining destination.
The Norfolk Hotel on Cleveland Street, Redfern, is an American dive bar-style pub with a ground-floor pub, beer garden and function room, and the House of Crabs restaurant on the first floor.
The Australian Venue Company is looking for a tenant to take on the Norfolk Hotel in Redfern. Photo: Supplied
The businesses each have price expectations below $500,000, according to market sources. Current annual rents for the Oxford Tavern and Norfolk Hotel are at $245,000 and $352,000 plus GST respectively, with the tenant paying all outgoings.
In 2012, the venues were acquired by Drink ’n’ Dine, a company that has successfully transformed a number of behind-the-times pubs.
It reinvented the Oxford Tavern into an American barbecue-themed diner with a bar, bistro, function area and outdoor beer garden in the space that used to be home to poker machines.
The Oxford Tavern in Petersham was known to be a topless-waitress bar before its transformation into a gastro-pub. Picture: Steve Lunam
In 2016, the pubs were acquired by the Dixon Hospitality Group. The Melbourne-based group, now known as the Australian Venue Company, has placed both leaseholds on the market.
The building, which is separate from the business, has been owned by The Thirst Fund Holding Pty Ltd since 2015, when it was bought for $3.36 million.
Australian Venue Company chief executive officer Paul Waterson said the group had decided to put the venues on the market because they were now more suited to someone with a more hands-on approach rather than a large national company.
“With the Oxford Tavern, Jaime Wirth (Drink n Dine chief executive officer) had quite a unique styling and it was very successful in that market,” Mr Waterson said. “These venues are really well-suited to those types of owner-operators, who are very, very current and able to change the offering frequently to meet what those local constituents want in terms of food and beverages.”
The Oxford Tavern includes seven pub-style guest rooms on the first floor that aren’t currently in use, but can be refurbished and leased out.
“There’s very much a lot of unused space there,” Mr Waterson said. “That absolutely has multiple uses for an operator in terms of shared workspaces, meeting rooms or accommodation.”
Mr Waterson said he expects local pub-owners to be interested, and the business will be “very affordable”.
“I think we’ll get quite a lot of interest from individuals who might have one pub or multiple pubs in the inner Sydney area,” he said. “It depends on what sort of interest we get but it won’t be millions of dollars – it’ll be very affordable to an individual publican who wants to start something up.”
The Australian Venue Company had its own rebrand earlier this year, six months after global investment firm KKR purchased a majority stake in the company for $190 million.
The Oxford Tavern is just down the road from the former Stanmore fire station, which Commercial Real Estate recently reported to be undertaking its own major redevelopment into a French Indochina-style hotel and restaurant.
The building was bought for more than $7 million earlier this year and is set to be converted into a boutique hotel and restaurant.
The venues are being listed with Ray White Hotels’ Blake Edwards and expressions of interest for both venues close July 25.
