Pub baron buys Bondi’s Royal Hotel for $30m
Sydney bar king Justin Hemmes is taking his up-market Merivale chain into beachside Bondi with the purchase of the Royal Hotel Bondi for more than $30 million.
The purchase marks out yet another part of the city that the hospitality operator has taken his empire into as he snaps up well-known venues and then seeks to add the Merivale touch.
The over-size hotel has run by the Moulding family for 40 years and Mr Hemmes is tipped to renovate the property as it could be repositioned as one of the area’s best up-market venues as it does not face direct competition from nearby hotels or clubs.
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With ocean views from the upper floors, Hemmes could even follow developers like Mirvac and Rebel Property Group that have undertaken projects in the area that is a gateway to Bondi Beach.
Former owner Geoff Moulding outside the Royal Hotel in Bondi. Geoff’s family owned the pub for 40 years before it was sold to Justin Hemmes’ Merivale chain. Picture: John Appleyard.
The sale was handled by John Musca of JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group and comes as Merivale assembles a longer term portfolio of suburban properties that extend the group’s reach well beyond its flagship CBD holdings.
Merivale in August bought Sydney northern beaches watering hole The Collaroy in a play worth about $21 million and the group is overhauling the nearby Newport hotel, which was picked up for close to $50 million in 2015.
The hotel magnate also splashed out $37.05 million on the Tennyson Hotel in Mascot last December, and had earlier bought The Alexandria Hotel.
The Collaroy Hotel was snapped up for about $21 million.
Sydney’s pub market is booming and some big names are also cashing in. High-profile businessmen John Singleton and Geoff Dixon’s Australian Pub Fund have sold half a dozen pubs, mainly to long time industry families, as they see the market continuing to rise on the back of strong consumer spending.
Merivale’s growing stable of A-grade hospitality properties also includes the Coogee Pavilion in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
