John Singleton seeking $25m for Balmain’s Unity Hall Hotel
Businessmen John Singleton and Geoff Dixon have called last drinks at Balmain’s iconic Unity Hall Hotel, following a decision to sell the pub.
Known as the birthplace of the Australian Labor Party, the pub is expected to sell for around $25 million.
A sale at this price point would see The Unity Hall Hotel smash its own 2011 suburb record of $10 million, for the highest price paid for any property in the harbourside enclave.
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The listing comes as Singleton, part owner of Macquarie Media, Dixon, former Qantas boss, and investor Mark Carnegie wind up the Riversdale Pub Fund’s interests in Sydney.
The pub has street frontage on Darling St and Beattie St.
Founded in 2010, the Riversdale Pub Fund has spent the past two years selling the likes of Newtown’s Marlborough Hotel, Glebe’s Toxteth and Marrickville’s Vic on the Park. While the Balmain site is Riversdale Pub Fund’s last asset in Sydney, the company will continue to operate in Newcastle and Queensland.
HTL Property’s Dan Dragicevich, who is selling the property with Andrew Jolliffe, says it is a great opportunity to buy a pub with the only licence in Balmain that can trade until 3am.
“The revenue potency created by its late trading license, clear scale and proximity to the Woolworths shopping centre and adjacent car park, is inimitable elsewhere in the area,” he says.
The pub was renovated in 2012.
The Unity Hall Hotel is located on Darling St and also has street frontage on Beattie St. It reopened in 2012 after major renovations by the Riversdale Pub Fund, including the iconic “Workers” bar on the first floor. The launch even had the late former prime minister Bob Hawke in attendance, as a testimony to Labor’s history at the site.
For buyers looking to add value to the property, the owners are selling the site with an approved DA to significantly increase patron capacity.
Other features include a profitable bottle shop that services many local Balmain restaurants, and 22 poker machines.
The listing of the Balmain pub comes at a time when the inner west is experiencing a sales boom with many local pubs changing hands.
The Workers bar has memorabilia including old signs of The Australian and The Daily Telegraph.
Publican Arthur Laundy made headlines in July when he snapped up The Oxford Hotel in Drummoyne for $42 million, while Annandale’s Empire Hotel and the Friend in Hand in Glebe have also traded.
Jolliffe says the industry is seeing increased activity as many in the pub game look to upsize or expand their portfolio.
“Not one single recognised seller is taking its money out of the asset class; with all reinvesting back into it, often via larger property acquisitions,” he says.
The pub is for sale via an international expressions of interest campaign until November 7.
This article from the Inner West Courier originally appeared as “John Singleton and Geoff Dixon put Balmain’s Unity Hall Hotel on the market with $25m hopes”.
