Drink N' Dine selling Carrington Hotel

Successful Sydney pub group Drink N’ Dine is divesting one of its freehold going concerns to make way for further expansion.  

Currently boasting a portfolio of five venues including the celebrated Norfolk and Forresters Hotels, the food-based pub operators have reluctantly decided to part with their successful inner-Sydney hotel, The Carrington. 

Group co-founder Jaime Wirth said the decision to sell was bittersweet, having worked hard to establish the hotel “as both a pub and a restaurant”.  

“It’s difficult parting with any of our venues, but we have decided that streamlining the group is best for the immediate future,” said Wirth. 

The Carrington

Pub brokers Joel Fisher and Dan Dragicevich of CBRE Hotels are executing the expressions of interest campaign, and believe the sale will serve as a litmus test for the tightly-held Sydney market in 2014.  

“The group is renowned for revolutionising down and out hotels in some of Sydney’s most vibrant areas,” says Dragicevich. “Unfortunately, the ‘Carro’ has become ancillary to the rest of the portfolio.” 

CBRE director of pub investments, Joel Fisher, said the pub sector in 2014 .has become something of a ‘seller’s market’, with yields sharpening at least 100 basis points. 

“There is resounding appetite from current players as well as new entrants for quality metro assets,” said Fisher. “This can be directly attributed to continued low rates and a lack of stock available.” 

The Carrington embodies Drink n’ Dine’s policy of food-oriented pubs with no poker machines, meaning it is not subject to trade risks associated with gaming or the impending lock-out regulations.

Source:  The Shout - 7 February 2014