Wallabies pub baron Bill Young expands his property empire with Bar Broadway buy
Ex Wallabies RU prop Bill Young is the new owner of Bar Broadway Picture: Colleen Petch
Prominent hotelier and former Wallabies prop Bill Young has made his latest move in the ongoing battle of the pubs.
Young, whose family have a long history of interests in pubs, won out in an “intensely competitive” EOI process that closed on June 30 for the famous Bar Broadway.
The much-loved university student hang at 2 Broadway Chippendale, was sold via JLL Hotels and Hospitality Group and Knight Frank.
The sale again illustrates the massive interest in hospitality assets post-Covid.
The famous Bar Broadway.
Sited alongside Sydney’s planned Tech Precinct, opposite University of Technology Sydney and just minutes walk from Central Station and Chinatown, Bar Broadway offers a 24-hour licence, 28 gaming machines, 26 beds across two floors with a DA for 60 more beds.
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JLL Hotels Senior Vice President, Ben McDonald said the unparalleled location of the asset was the key driver of interest in the campaign.
“The compelling precinct growth story and resultant demand for this asset, further demonstrates the unabated capital appetite for this highly protected, intrinsically valuable asset-class where the very best located assets deliver perpetual earnings growth unlike any other real estate or business sector,” he said.
Wallabies prop Bill Young with son William outside father’s his Concord Hotel in 2003. Picture: Colleen Petch.
McDonald was tight lipped on the sale, but it is understood to have fetched about $36 million.
With over $400m of hotel assets recently sold or being finalised, JLL Hotels says this is the greatest period of industry consolidation in history.
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Bar Broadway sold for around $36m.
It is expected to leave limited hotel assets in individual private hands nationally, as larger groups continue to voraciously absorb hotels in a market with limited asset supply, according to JLL.
The Young family have been long-time owners of the Concord Hotel, Concord.
Three months ago Young offloaded Glebe’s Friend in Hand pub for around $11m after buying it just two years earlier.
The family also owns the Illinois Hotel in Five Dock and the Royal Hotel in Ryde.
A hard-headed prop, Young, 48, was a regular feature for the Wallabies and the Brumbies during some of the most successful seasons in their history.
Young in his playing days. Picture: Darren England.
He was a Super Rugby winner for the Brumbies and played in Australia’s 2003 World Cup final loss to England in Sydney.
Young retired due to a neck injury in 2006, after 46 Tests for the Wallabies as the second most capped Australian prop of all time and 100 matches for the Brumbies.
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