Publican Brian Perry has pocketed $12million following the sale of the iconic Harbour View Hotel in The Rocks, Sydney.
Perry who purchased the property in 1998 for $2.18 million, according to CoreLogic data, is preparing to retire.
The pub was listed with JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group via expressions of interest and sold to a private investor in less than a week. until July 25.
The Harbour View Hotel is one of the few freehold hotels in the Rocks, and was a favourite haunt of Paul Hogan and a filming location for the 1982 Australian movie Starstruck (below).
Hogan was a rigger on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the 1970s and in the afternoons following knock-off, he’d make their way to the Harbour View Hotel for a beer.
Meanwhile, Starstruck fans still visit the pub to order a beer from its famous curved bar. But the colourful tiles, kitschy decorations and mural of the Sydney Harbour Bridge don’t exist. A studio set was constructed for the interior of the pub, as it was found that noise from the nearby trains would be too disruptive to film on location.
JLL National Director John Musca said: “We pre-empted a robust response from the JLL international and national investor client base that would take the asset quickly beyond hotelier suitors, and were overwhelmed by the interest resulting in a swift sale to a private national providore – their first hotel investment.”
The new owners already have plans for the hotel including a new potential roof-top bar with specular views over the harbour and Sydney Harbour Bridge. There will also be a new premium restaurant offering at the hotel and heritage sympathetic bar and terrace renovations.
The sale follows former wallaby Bill Young snap up the Friend in Hand Hotel in Glebe for $10.25 million and the Harold Park Hotel selling for $6 million.
JLL’s Nick Butler said: “We are receiving qualified, motivated acquisition directives from buyers across all levels of hotel opportunity with the highest volume of off-market activity for over two years.”
The Hotel Conversation notes: “ALHs recently announced Woolworths demerger and Endeavour Drinks securitization or sale along with AVC’s ramp up pre-planned 2020 are also widely expected to drive national competition for assets further with the market foreseeably remaining active.”
