Clovelly Hotel leasehold up for sale
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Hospitality giant Solotel, owned by celebrity chef Matt Moran and businessman Bruce Solomon, has put the leasehold of the popular Clovelly Hotel in Sydney's upmarket eastern suburbs beach precinct on the market.
The sale follows two years of rebranding the hotel after the pair acquired the pub in December 2016 for a reported $30 million and upgraded the food and beverage offerings.
The sale of the leasehold is significant because the Cloey, as it’s called by the locals, has been a major drop-in spot for Sydneysiders and international tourists for more than 50 years.
Mr Solomon said the decision to sell the lease was part of a ''realignment'' of the Solotel business in view of the changing market and changing priorities at Solotel.
''In the last few years, Solotel has undertaken a strategic review that involves the rebalancing of our portfolio of hospitality investments. We have opened six new venues, have sold three other properties and undertaken major renovations of another five venues during this period of refocus,'' Mr Solomon told the Sydney Morning Herald.
At the same time, however, he said the business was expanding and was looking around for acquisitions.
''We will be opening another two new venues, the Chophouse Parramatta and The Abercrombie Hotel, in the upcoming months" Mr Solomon told the Sydney Morning Herald.
The sale of the lease of the Clovelly comes at a time when there are many other deals in the area including hotel entrepreneur Justin Hemmes buying the Royal Hotel in Bondi for $25 million last year.
There is now speculation that Hemmes might be looking at picking up the Cloverlly leasehold.
Ray White Hotels Australia's Asia-Pacific director of hotels, Andrew Jolliffe, who is managing the sale of the Cloey, says the market for these iconic hotel assets is strong.
''We’ve seen the recent sale of both the Collaroy and Royal Hotel, Bondi to [Mr Hemmes'] Merivale, complemented by the sale of (John Singleton’s) Singo’s legendary Icebergs to Melbourne’s O’Brien Group, as well as no shortage of off-market activity regarding other Sydney seaside icons," Mr Jolliffe told the Sydney Morning Herald.
''Having enjoyed the role of negotiator in many examples, we can confidently attest to the continued and very deliberate interest by domestic and international groups seeking AAA-grade product by which to secure access to robust cash flow businesses.
''Our transaction statistics over the past two weeks and across $180 million worth of contracted hospitality properties is at a 10-year high and, accordingly, we maintain our view that yields are and will continue to contract for AAA grade hospitality assets.''
Leon Gettler - 30 July 2018
