Capital Gain
Pub baron Justin Hemmesโ empire just keeps getting bigger.
The hospitality tsar successfully outbid three other buyers in a spirited auction to emerge as victor with a former RSL club, The Barracks, to add to his booming Sydney city property holdings.
After turning up and bidding in person, he bought the former Combined Services RSL sub-Branch at 5-7 Barrack Street for $19 million.
The property was formerly part of the City Tattersalls Club, with the basement used in WWII as the Stage Door Canteen for servicemen and women.
The venue is near Hemmesโ Merivale CBD Hotel and other properties he has acquired on York Street for a new development. At the time it listed in late April, price expectations were about $15 million.
The 341.5-square-metre freehold site houses a building with ground floor hospitality, basement below and two levels above. The venue sold with vacant possession and the agents said that much of the interest from buyers was around its potential to redevelop.
RSL sub-branch president Bill Forsbey said the sale proceeds will go towards funding the advocacy, compensation, mental health, wellbeing, support, employment, sport, recreation, connection and other services veterans say they need most after leaving the service.
โWe are a charity for veterans,โ Forsbey said. โThat means our money goes to veterans, not into a rundown building. This sale puts $19 million to work for them.โ
Colliersโ agents James Cowan and Jack McGregor managed the deal.
EVs and burritos
Burritos and electric vehicles are top of the list for many consumers in the current economic environment, which has prompted two large lease deals.
The ASX-listed Guzman y Gomez has signed a 170 sq m lease for an outlet at the Caringbah Pavilion, the new development under way by Conquest in Caringbah, in Sydneyโs south.
Conquest is a private equity real estate firm with a $5 billion development pipeline across residential, retail and hospitality in Sydney and London.
While fitout works for the Mexican restaurant chain are now under way, the broader Caringbah Pavilion development is expected to open in coming months.
Meanwhile, luxury four-wheel drive EV maker DENZA has inked a flagship five-year lease in Alexandria, signing up for a prominent 720 sq m showroom at 61-63 OโRiordan Street.
The site has frontage to Doody Street and major exposure to OโRiordan Street, positioning the Chinese brand alongside established luxury marques including Bentley, Range Rover, Rolls-Royce and BYD.
William Gathercole from RWC Industrial City South advised on the lease and said the transaction was the fifth major deal he had done with an EV occupier this year.
Big bus deal
Global tourism operator Big Bus Tours, which runs City Sightseeing, is selling its industrial property in Banksmeadow with price expectations of about $9 million.
Big Bus wants to lease back the site to continue its operations under a 10-year agreement with two five-year options. The site now generates a net passing income of $500,000 a year.
The site has a 546 sq m two-level office and a 1403 sq m open warehouse. Colliers agents Billy Marsh and Trent Gallagher are advising on the sale.
Pub deals
Pub investors Redcape have swooped on the leasehold of the Arthouse pub, taking over from hotelier Ben McBeath, who operated the venue for 26 years.
The pub, in The Galeries retail precinct on Pitt Street, has a 24-hour liquor licence, 21 gaming machines and annual revenue of $8 million. No price was disclosed, but in late April it had expectations of about $6.5 million.
McBeathโs portfolio includes the Great Northern and TreeHouse Hotel in North Sydney. HTLโs Dan Dragicevich and Sam Handy handled the sale.
In inner-west Petersham, the Oxford Tavern, once a well-known dive bar, is for sale through receivers and managers Cameron Gray and Adam Shepard of HM Advisory.
Bar group Odd Culture took the reins of The Tav in 2019, did a refurbishment and reopened a year later. Post COVID, they decided not to renew the lease, and itโs been vacant for the past three years.
HTLโs Sam Handy and Blake Edwards are steering the sale.
Belrose calling
A 5358 sq m commercial property with surplus land for potential development on the tightly held northern beaches has sold for $5.15 million.
The single-level commercial building at 11 Narabang Way in Belrose is split into two tenancies. It sold with a leaseback to the vendor, an entity related to civil, landscape and recycled supplier Benedict.
The deal was negotiated by Knight Frankโs Mark Litwin and Anthony Pirrottina, alongside Pentagon Propertyโs Toby Silk.
carolynannecummins@gmail.com
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