Longueville Hotel secures new custodian in big pub deal
JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group has today announced the off-market sale of the much-loved Longueville Hotel on Sydney’s exclusive Lower North Shore. The prized asset sold ten days prior to closing of the invitation-only Expression of Interest process.
JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group Managing Director, John Musca and Senior Vice President, Ben McDonald exclusively negotiated the sale on behalf of the Campion family. The hotel has been owned and operated by extended family for nearly 100 years, taking over on opening in 1929.
Originally buying the lease off Tooth & Co before acquiring the freehold, the Campion family have watched the Lane Cove Village evolve into a thriving town centre with Graham Campion, third generation and the current operator of the business, literally growing up in the hotel.
Occupying a gateway site at the entry to Lane Cove Village on Longueville Road, the architecturally striking Longueville Hotel serves a large population catchment of over 40,000 residents with no immediate competition and offers an enhanced patron experience across bar, dining, gaming and wagering with 3am trading approval, 27 gaming machines entitlements and average weekly revenue in excess of $160k. The hotel also offers genuine opportunity to enhance the business by capitalising on current plans to improve the gaming offering, repositioning of the basement bar and optimisation of the first floor of the hotel which is currently approved to operate 15 accommodation rooms but also licensed.
JLL Managing Director Pubs John Musca stated that “transaction activity in the asset-class is at a two-decade high nationally, not surprising given the superior weighting attributed to hotel earnings and the very limited number of assets per capita that will ever be available to acquire - we are witnessing never before seen consolidation.”
The purchasers of the hotel are popular industry identities Patrick and Angela Gallagher of Gallagher Hotels, who are set to add ‘The Longy’ to their stable of large-format, landmark community hotels including the Hunters Hill Hotel and Terrigal Hotel.
Family representative Graham Campion commented that “it’s with a tinge of sadness but immense pride that the family are handing over the Longy to such respectful, exemplar custodians as the Gallaghers and we wish them every success with the next evolution of this wonderful business”.
The sale is amidst a recent swathe of generational family exits from the hotel industry from smaller owner-operators where private groups are utilizing their balance sheet strength in a supply starved, highly regulated market, to expand their portfolios alongside the bigger national corporations and their insatiable acquisition appetite.
“We are delighted to now consider the ‘Longy’ as part of the Gallagher suite of quality family hotels and thank the Campion family for the opportunity to continue the hotels legacy in this wonderful, supportive community”, Mr Gallagher said.
JLL Senior Vice President, Ben McDonald highlighted “the chance to acquire hotel assets commanding a monopolistic position in strong retail locations are worthy of ‘unicorn’ status and likely to be held by new buyers generationally. We don’t see that changing anytime soon as asset supply continues to diminish.”
The announcement follows JLL’s recent sale of Bar Broadway in Chippendale for $37m and highlights the ongoing demand for operating real estate assets with captured local patron catchments in precincts underpinned by key growth narratives.
It’s been an enormous week of transactional activity for JLL Hotels with close to $120m in pub sales completed in NSW in the last week alone and in excess of $300m nationally since the beginning of the new financial year a mere seven weeks ago. JLL is also midway through the sale process for the famous Oaks Hotel in Neutral Bay - offered to market for the first time ever by the private owners with a price guide of ‘circa $175m’.
JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group, 24th August 2022
