Country gems lure Elanor fund into tourism plays
Elanor Investors Group’s hotel fund is buying The Estate Tuscany in the Hunter Valley.
The acquisitive Elanor Hotel Accommodation Fund is looking to expand its domestic portfolio further into rural NSW, buying into the Hunter Valley wine region as well as the country music home of Tamworth as regional tourism continues to boom.
If the fund’s purchases of the Estate Tuscany Hunter Valley and the Sanctuary Inn Tamworth NSW – both negotiated through HTL Property – proceed, it will bring the fund’s regional hotel portfolio value to just under $380m.
All up, the fund will have 16 hotels in its portfolio, nine of which are managed by Accor Group under its various brands including ibis Styles, Mantra and Peppers.
To help fund the Hunter Valley and Tamworth purchases, the unlisted Elanor Hotel Accommodation Fund is seeking to raise $19.4m through the issue of 19.4 million new stapled securities at $1 per security.
The Estate Tuscany Hunter Valley NSW property is being purchased from a related entity, Elanor Investors Group, for $12.75m, based on a new independent valuation.
The boutique hotel was bought by Elanor itself earlier this year. HTL Property handled that sale on behalf of the Gregson family, who had operated the property for the past 20 years.
Built in 1996, the four-star Estate Tuscany Hunter Valley, in Pokolbin, comprises 38 rooms, and has a cellar door and wine storage building leased to Andrew Thomas Wines.
The grand property has panoramic views of the Brokenback Mountain range, an award-winning restaurant and bar and is set across 9.3ha of lush landscape. Two retail shops are also leased to renowned winery, Thomas Wines.
Estate Tuscany generated more than 70 inquiries, with multiple formal offers submitted at the closing.
“The buyer pool for regional accommodation has exploded in the past 12 months with not only domestic hotel funds and owner-operators seeking this class of asset, but also institutional investors and a new breed of ‘lifestyle investor’,” HTL Property’s Nic Simarro said at the time of the sale, which he handled with colleague Andrew Jackson.
The Sanctuary Inn Tamworth property is being acquired from a third-party private individual vendor for $16.45m, in line with the property’s June independent valuation.
The four-star Sanctuary Inn Tamworth is a 60-room hotel in the heart of Tamworth on the New England Highway, 406km of Sydney. The two-level hotel has a 24-hour reception and office, restaurant, bar, function rooms and car park.
The Hunter Valley and Tamworth acquisitions will represent 7.7 per cent of the portfolio, with the three largest properties representing 52 per cent of the portfolio – the Mayfair Hotel Adelaide (23 per cent), Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge Tasmania (20 per cent) and the Byron Bay Hotel and Apartments (9 per cent). Forecast distributions for the fund are 9.2 per cent per annum for the 2023 financial year. The offer closes on June 30.
