Second Sydney Hotel Sold
Only four days into the new Financial Year, and the signs of a strong post one percent cash rate property market are evidenced by the second freehold hotel sale in one week by HTL Property’s Dan Dragicevich, Sam Handy and Andrew Jolliffe.
The off-market sale, the second following the sale earlier this week of Drummoyne’s Oxford Hotel to Arthur Laundy for 42m, sees experienced hotelier and former Wallaby front rower Bill Young purchase Glebe’s popular Friend in Hand Hotel. Young’s last purchase, also through HTL Property agents, was the $28.5m acquisition of the former listed company Lantern Group’s Five Dock Hotel. Last NSW State Government Rankings show the Five Dock Hotel positioned at 55 in the State; up 73 places from 128th at the time of Young’s purchase in 2017.
Owned by the Byrne family for 36 years, the Friend in Hand’s corner site in Cowper St has been a favourite watering hole for the communities of Glebe and Pyrmont since its inception as a hotel in 1858.
“We spoke to Andrew from HTL a few years ago, and he told us the hotel wasn’t ready for sale at the time and that we should wait a few years” advised Vendor and Licensee Michael Byrne.
“We are very proud of the Byrne family's nearly four decades of ownership, and are delighted that our family legacy is in appropriate hands, with the fact that Bill Young has purchased the hotel given his family’s history of owning the property before our family did” commented Byrne.
"Young family to Byrne family, and now back to Young family; such great history and a changing of the guard that actually means something to those involved" Byrne concluded.
“Generational Hotels are one of the great attributes of the pub market, and like our sale of the Bells Hotel in Woolloomooloo last year for the Miles family, it is rewarding to see the Friend in Hand Hotel being passed back to Bill Young and his family; who themselves have such a deep history in the industry “ advised HTL Property National Pubs Director Dan Dragicevich.
“Properly representing hotels in our role isn’t a cookie cutter approach, and sometimes a sale process is most benefited by a marketed and very public campaign. But in other cases, such as with the Friend in Hand, applying our market intelligence in a less public manner is more appropriate” said Dragicevich.
In a recent market report, HTL Property advised that the NSW pub market had seen double digit volume
growth and close to 900m in sales during the past Financial Year, including the boutique firm’s record hotel sale of Manly’s Hotel Steyne.
Accordingly, the firm’s Managing Director Andrew Jolliffe believes the hospitality indexed property market is set for another strong period ahead.
HTL Property, 5th July 2019
