Commodore Hotel on the auction block

The Lantern Group has put the 150 year old Commodore Hotel up for sale.

The hotel, which according to popular legend was Henry Lawson’s favourite pub, has been through several changes.

The two-storey, 1138-square-metre Commodore Hotel on Blues Point Road was originally known as the First Old Commodore Hotel.

In the middle of last century, it was known for the famous Tooth & Co operation.

The most recent offering has been there since 1997.

The sale comes at a time when investors are on the lookout for  quality A grade hotels and the Commodore has been put on the market following the successful sale of the Columbian Hotel in Oxford Street in Surry Hills.

The Lantern Group is selling the hotel as part of its strategy to divest some of its non-core properties in Sydney.

Some of the hotels divested so far include the Crown Hotel in Surry Hills, Five Dock Hotel, the General Gordon Hotel in Sydenham, Ambarvale Hotel in Sydney’s south west, Uncle Bucks Hotel at Mount Druitt and the Waterworks Hotel in Botany.

Andrew Jolliffe, director Asia Pacific at Ray White Hotels, who is advising on the sale,  said the hotel has a name and has attracted a lot of interest from publicans and developers.

“It has been maybe the most prolific response in the last two years’ worth of campaigns, because it is a well-known property and (North Sydney) is a very established area ... enjoying a very solid base of residential occupation and development, a CBD commercial workforce influx of some 55,000 people daily; and a major transport hub in the form of both rail and bus interchange,” Mr Jolliffe told the Daily Telegraph.

“Hotels like the Commodore are very rare in that they enjoy the potent mix of historically strong cash flow generation as well as being situated on very valuable parcels of premium commercial land holdings; providing the potential, indexed to approvals and investment cycle chronology, for downstream development of both a mixed and alternative use basis.”

by Leon Gettler, September 29^th 2016