Double profit: Pub family sells Hurstville Ritz for second time

Pub baron Nelson Meers Hotel Group picked up the Hurstville Ritz for $45 million while the existing tenant, the Moelis Australia Redcape Hotel Group, bought the Cabramatta Hotel in Sydney’s outer west, also for $45 million.

Both hotel deals were brokered by John Morrison, of Sydney Hotel Brokers Pty Ltd.

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The Bowden Group, which has been in the pub game for the past 40 years, is understood to have sold the pubs because of the strong pub market and with retirement in mind.

The Bowden Group head Stephen Bowden, the former Newtown Jets front rower, bought the Hurstville Ritz in 1979 and sold it in 2007 for $52 million.

Bowden subsequently repurchased the hotel for $30.5 million in early 2011, in one of the top real estate deals of the year.

Meanwhile, the Cabramatta Hotel has been picked up by its long-term tenant, the listed Moelis Australia Redcape Group. The tenancy over the hotel expires in 2022 but the tenant has two 15-year options.

The Cabramatta Hotel was acquired by the Bowdens in 2010 as a freehold investment with NLG as the tenant. NLG was later acquired by Moelis.

Both the Hurstville and Cabramatta hotels have 30 gaming machine entitlements.

Meanwhile, hospitality entrepreneur Justin Hemmes last week paid more than $30 million for the Royal Hotel Bondi in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs.

The Royal Hotel in Bondi has been sold for more than $30 million.

The hotel was operated by the Moulding family for 40 years and Hemmes is expected to undertake a major renovation to reposition the hotel.

Merivale bought The Collaroy hotel on Sydney’s northern beaches for about $21m. Nearby it spent about $50 million buying the Newport Arms.

Closer to the city, Hemmes spent $37.05 million buying the Tennyson Hotel in Mascot.

– with Ben Wilmot

This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.