Commodore Hotel finds new captain for $14.5m
Lantern Hotel Group has continued shedding non-core assets, this time selling Sydney’s 150-year-old Commodore Hotel and its business for $14.5 million.
An undisclosed Sydney hotelier made the purchase just a month after the property was listed for sale, with the price reflecting a 46.5% boost on its June 30 book value.
The popular and well-known pub sits on a 1138sqm corner site and has a public bar, outdoor terrace, bistro, bottle shop, a gaming room with 17 pokies, as well as off-street parking.
Once known as the First Commodore Hotel, the establishment was substantially refurbished in 1997.
Ray White Hotels’ Andrew Jolliffe handled the sale, which comes amid Lantern’s moves to offload a string of non-core properties across Australia, as it turns its focus to its New South Wales portfolio.
The Commodore Hotel lies just north of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, at McMahons Point.
Among the sales were the GPO Hotel in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley for $5.25 million and The Bowral Hotel, in the New South Wales southern highlands, for $6.35 million.
The sale also comes a day after Lantern expressed surprise at reports Cairns Council would compulsorily acquire the Cairns Courthouse Hotel, which Lantern advised it had entered into contracts to sell for $6.5 million earlier this year.
In an ASX announcement, Lantern Hotel chairman Graeme Campbell and CEO John Osborne say the council’s plan is news to them.
“Lantern has not received any formal notification from the Cairns Regional Council regarding its announced proposal to compulsory (sic) acquire the Courthouse Hotel,” their announcement says.
The Cairns Courthouse Hotel could be compulsorily acquired by Cairns Council.
“At this stage Lantern is not in a position to make any comment as to what impact this may have in relation to Lantern’s announced sale of the Courthouse Hotel, including the timing of the sale.”
Jolliffe says the expressions of interest campaign for the Commodore Hotel yielded a host of potential buyers keen to get their hands on one of the city’s longest-standing pubs.
“The depth and quality of the 90-plus genuine enquiries received throughout the sale process is testament to both the compelling opportunity the 150-year-old hotel site afforded those who considered it, as well as the continued strength of the national freehold hotel market with regard to genuine A-grade properties,” he says.
Osborne says the hotel’s sale “is in line with our well-publicised (divestment) strategy and we are delighted with the outcome”.
