Publican Arthur Laundy in hunt for staff for new Log Cabin Hotel at Penrith

Arthur Laundy is seeking staff for the restaurant at his newly opened Log Cabin Hotel in Penrith. Picture: David Swift.

Billing his newly opened pub in Penrith as akin to being the up-market Watsons Bay Hotel of Sydney’s outer west, billionaire hotelier ­Arthur Laundy, one of Australia’s wealthiest publicans, says the only difficulty is finding sufficient hospitality staff to run it.

Laundy and his partners, builder Blake Cottle of FDC and Penrith businessman Rob Wearn, opened their new $35m Log Cabin Hotel on the banks of the Nepean River in Penrith in Sydney’s outer west last week.

More than 200 people attended the opening night of the Log Cabin Hotel with some guests likening the property to the ritzy Watsons Bay Hotel closer to the city that Mr Laundy controls in a joint venture arrangement with another publican, Fraser Short.

While the Penrith pub, which has been rebuilt after being destroyed by fire a decade ago, is operating and construction is completed, Laundy Hotels, like other hospitality operators, is finding it difficult to hire sufficient staff to open the fine dining restaurant on the second floor.

Apart from the yet-to-open fine dining restaurant, there is also function room space, a beer garden, a cocktail bar and an external deck providing patrons with views of the ­Nepean River.

Fronting 20 Memorial Ave, Penrith, the site has been used for hospitality for more than 200 years, and was most recently operating as the Log Cabin Hotel, which burnt down in 2012.

Mr Laundy is also building on two more sites in Sydney’s outer suburbs – at Jordan Springs in Sydney’s west and at Calderwood near Albion Park on the NSW south coast – that will be used for major pub developments.

On the NSW south coast, construction of Mr Laundy’s Calderwood hotel is expected to be finished in ­August, while Laundy Hotels is building another pub at Jordan Springs, 53km west of the Sydney CBD.

Meanwhile, Mr Laundy and his daughter Danielle Richardson and son-in-law Shane Richardson have joint ventured on the acquisition of the The Orana Hotel at Blacksmiths, north of Gosford on the NSW mid north coast.

They recently paid $13m for the property.