Chopper Read’s favourite haunt yours for $3.8m-plus
A colourful Collingwood pub famously frequented by the late Mark “Chopper” Read has been served up to the market.
The Leinster Arms Hotel, which was established at 66 Gold St in 1863, is up for grabs for the first time in 27 years with a $3.8 million price guide.
It’s being offered with vacant possession.
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Glen and Wilhelmina McGee, who ran the popular watering hole for 18 years, closed it on AFL Grand Final day.
Mark ‘Chopper’ Read was a regular at Collingwood’s Leinster Arms Hotel, which is now for sale.
Their closure announcement described the hotel as “a second home to many” and “one of the cosiest destinations in town”.
When Read died in 2013, Ms McGhee told Fairfax Media the notorious crime figure always had a story to tell at the pub, and that “raspberry lemonade” became his drink of choice there in his final years.
Inside the “cosy” Leinster Arms pub.
Also connected to the venue was Tyler Cassidy, who worked there as a kitchen hand before being fatally shot by Victoria Police at age 15 in 2009.
CBRE Hotels selling agent Will Connolly — who has the listing with Scott Callow and Nathan Mufale — says the fact the historic single-storey building is being sold with vacant possession makes it “an extremely flexible opportunity”.
One of the pub’s two beer gardens.
“We are expecting interest from a wide range of buyer profiles, varying from hospitality operators, investors looking to re-lease and developers recognising the area’s rapid growth,” Connolly says.
The property is on a prime 596sqm corner block and features a front bar, lounge and dining area, commercial kitchen, bistro, two beer gardens and striking leadlight windows.
Longtime owners Glen and Wilhelmina McGee.
A 1am General Liquor Licence will also be part of the package when the pub is auctioned onsite on December 7.
This article from the Herald Sun originally appeared as “Mark ‘Chopper’ Read’s old watering hole for sale in Collingwood”.
