Yang family selling Bexley North pub in a frothy market
After 40 years of pulling beers, the Yang family is selling its sprawling Bexley North Hotel in Sydney’s south, which comes with land for development that could include a new hotel, retail and commercial outlets, and apartments.
The site, a 4234 square metre landholding in Bexley North’s town centre, recently received zoning approval from NSW Planning for a mixed-use redevelopment with 92 apartments and 50 hotel rooms, as well as the pub and some retail.
The huge pub generates more than $11.5 million in annual revenue across bar, bistro, gaming, wagering, 20 rooms for accommodation and retail liquor.
No price was disclosed, but similar pub and development sites such as the Carousel Inn and Pendle Inn have sold for about $60 million.
Pubs with development potential are expected to attract longtime operators such as the Laundy family, which has a number of large-scale mixed-use projects under way, developers and “land-bankers”.
Bexley owner Michael Yang said after 40 years of continous ownership, it was the right time for new operators to take the hotel on its next evolution.
“Whilst we’re not necessarily developers, we believe that the hotel and site represent an amazing opportunity to acquire a large-format hotel with genuine mixed-use redevelopment potential,” Yang said.
Whilst we’re not necessarily developers, we believe that the hotel and site represent an amazing opportunity to acquire a large format hotel with genuine mixed-use redevelopment potential
Bexley North pub owner Michael Yang
Licensee and shareholder Trevor Yang said the family was open to entering into a joint venture with a developer and “equally open to passing the torch on to a suitable hotelier who will continue our philosophy of operating a family-friendly pub for the local community”.
Agents advising on the sale are HTL Property’s Sam Handy, Dan Dragicevich and Andrew Jolliffe, with Colliers International’s James Cowan and Trent Gallagher.
“We anticipate the campaign will generate interest from a broad spectrum of suitors,” Handy said.
These will range from hoteliers interested in reinvigorating the pub through to developers, land bankers and investors attracted to the site’s land holding, offering tangible and flexible redevelopment options.
The sale is one in a long line of pubs deals in the past year, amounting to about $2.5 billion. Investors and developers look at the asset class for the capital growth, as most are well-located, while operators see the advantage of having a good pub for the locals.
“We have seen a considerable uptick in inquiry from large offshore and institutional developers working on the thematic that the combination of inbound skilled migration, overlaid by the considerable undersupply of stock by 2024, will drive pricing escalations both for the sales and leasing market,” James Cowan, director at Colliers said.
Trent Gallagher, national director at Colliers added there were few, if any, developable sites left in this market.
“The site benefits from significant scale, diverse future uses and holding income; we believe it will be extremely well competed for by both build-to-sell and the burgeoning build-to-rent sector,” he said.
