Adgemis’ Public Hospitality loses Balmain’s Town Hall Hotel as receivers sell

Receivers have sold another asset which once belonged to former KPMG operative, Jon Adgemis.

A key asset of Jon Adgemis’s embattled Public Hospitality has been sold at auction by receivers for $9.5m.

The sale of the vacant freehold site in Sydney’s inner west marks a further dismantlement of Mr Adgemis’s empire, with Balmain’s Town Hall Hotel sold to a private investor.

A one-time KPMG deal-maker, Mr Adgemis bought the 366 Darling Street site for about $8m in mid-2017 via an unsolicited offer to the Balmain Pub Group, but less than 12 months after buying it the hotel was returned to market as a mixed-use passive freehold.

Over the past decade the popular pub, built in 1888, has operated as a hotel and also as a mixed-use property. In 2022 there were major plans to renovate it.

The two-storey building occupies a strategic triple street frontage on Darling Street and incorporates below-ground storage, retail space, and accommodation plus a rooftop terrace with city views. The property has a DA approval to operate as a pub and cafe.

Creditors called in five of the Public Hospitality Group’s pubs late last year, taking possession of the Camelia Grove Hotel in Alexandria, Oxford House in Paddington, The Norfolk in Redfern, The Strand in Darlinghurst and the Exchange Hotel.

Wexted Advisory’s Joseph Hayes and Christopher Johnson were appointed by lender Latrobe Financial to sell the Town Hall Hotel, which was sold vacant possession.

In turn, adviser Wexted appointed HTL Property agents Sam Handy and Andrew Jolliffe, along with Colliers’ James Cowan and Matthew Meynell.

Mr Jolliffe has previously said that while clearly not restricted to hospitality use, pub sites such as this have been particularly sought after these past few months due to compressed interest rates and the malleability of multi-level commercial property holdings in key corner locations.

Meanwhile, HTL Property has been appointed to another receivership sale, this time on Sydney’s Lower North Shore.

Receivers are flogging the popular Pickled Possum bar on Sydney’s North Shore.

The freehold going concern interest in the Pickled Possum in Neutral Bay has hit the market, with the agents touting the fact that the Military Road bar has a licence to operate until 2am between Monday and Saturday.

“It is anticipated that it will appeal to a broad range of hospitality buyer segments including hoteliers, restaurateurs, bar operators, craft beer brewers, wineries and even spirits distillers,” said HTL Property director Sam Handy.

“The Pickled Possum is a much-loved and cherished late-night Lower North Shore bar that has entertained several generations of patrons.

“We anticipate intense interest in this asset given not only the sentimentality that is attached to it, but also its compelling underlying land, building and business fundamentals.”

The venue went into receivership recently, with Joseph Hansell and Vaughan Strawbridge of FTI Consulting appointed receivers and managers.

Expressions of interest in The Pickled Possum, which has a price guide of around $2.5m, close on August 7.

Owner Bob Patterson has put in plans for a 78-room boarding house on the site of the former piano bar in Neutral Bay.