Noah’s Backpackers Bondi Beach sells for $68m to pub baron Jon Adgemis
Noah’s Backpackers in Bondi Beach has sold for $68m to pub baron Jon Adgemis after months of negotiations to buy what was pitched as one of Sydney’s biggest development opportunities.
Adgemis’s PUBLIC Hospitality Group is understood to have beaten a range of big-name players including fashion pioneer and Ingham chicken heir Robby Ingham and prolific property developer George Karageorge, who bought Surry Hills City Crown Motel for $11.5m last December, to the prized site at 2-12 Campbell Pde.
The 44-year-old, who is the former boyfriend of model Cheyenne Tozzi but these days has model Megan MacKenzie by his side, is the former head of mergers and acquisitions at accounting firm KPMG.
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But he’s now challenging Justin Hemmes and Stu Laundy to become Sydney’s leading pub baron, with recent acquisions including Lady Hampshire in Camperdown; Strand Hotel in Darlinghurst; Empire Hotel in Darlinghurst and The Town Hall in Balmain.
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But Noah’s in Bondi Beach, on its prominent 1087sqm site, with 260 beds and a rooftop with such spectacular ocean views, has the potential to be his biggest and best.
The Colliers sales agents, Miron Solomons and Matt Pontey, in conjunction with Oxford Agency’s Daniel Marano and Ralph Garofano, listed the property back in April in an expressions of interest campaign closing May 5.
They hadn’t offered a price guide, but it’s understood they’d wanted $70m.
It’s not clear exactly what Adgemis wants to do with the site, but there’s been talk of potential for apartments, a hotel, or perhaps a combination of both.
It will be up to Adgemis to negotiate with Waverley Council to try to up the 12.5m height limit.
Property records show that a company owned by Terry Harkham, Geraldine Harkham and California-based Efrem Harkham (founder and CEO of Luxe Hotels and Luxe Collection) bought the two main corner buildings that form Noah’s for $5.6m in 1997 and the four-storey block of flats above a laundromat next door for $8.5m in 2020.
The block of flats is part of the sale.
The Harkhams have a range of companies, including Harkham Wines in the Hunter Valley.