Dove & Olive sells as pub market bubbles along

The Dove and Olive Hotel in Surry Hills has sold for almost $12 million.
The Dove and Olive Hotel in Surry Hills has sold for almost $12 million.

The Good Beer Company has sold the Dove & Olive Hotel in inner Sydney’s Surry Hills to a member of the Murphy publican family for about $11.85 million as the city’s hotel market surge ­continues.

The pub has sold to a company held by Sonya Deale, after a campaign run by JLL’s Hotels & Hospitality Group’s John Mucsa.

The agent said Surry Hills was developing as one of Sydney’s most sought-after city fringe areas, with the Devonshire Street pub at the heart of the precinct.

The two-level hotel has 12 poker machine entitlements, a beer garden and terrace, and a rooftop bar could be developed.

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The deal sees the run of major pub sales in the city continue. Vendors including Lantern ­Hotels Group and the Australian Pub Fund, backed by John Singleton, former Qantas chief Geoff Dixon and investment banker Mark Carnegie, are capitalising on strong demand.

Ray White has just sold Lantern’s Crown Hotel, also in Surry Hills, and it is handling the sale of Singleton’s Marlborough Hotel, in inner city Newtown.

In another recent move, publican Dean Haritos has put the leasehold of one of Sydney’s most popular CBD watering holes, the Verandah Hotel at Martin Place, on the block for about $9 million.

Ray White Asia Pacific director Andrew Jolliffe, who is handling the sale, says the hotel has attracted strong patronage and a long-term lease is in place to landlord Dexus Property Group for 29 years.

The hotel has 20 poker machine licences, underwriting the asset value.

Publican Geoff Redmond is also selling the Vegas Hotel in Potts Point, through Sam Handy and Daniel Dragicevich of CBRE Hotels.

Developers are tipped to chase the $25 million property because of its prime location and the possibility of adding up to four storeys to the building.