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Sydney billionaire pub owner Sam Arnaout is downsizing in Darlinghurst, offloading two prominent pubs – the Colombian Hotel and Gaslight Inn – as part of an asset sales program.
Dubbed the man with the Midas touch, the former panel beater has turned a string of suburban pokie pubs into some of NSW’s highest-earning and most valuable hotels, giving him an estimated fortune of more than $3 billion.
Arnaout bought his first pub 25 years ago. His hospitality group, Iris Capital, now owns more than 50 venues, as well as the Casino Canberra and Lasseters Hotel Casino in Alice Springs, and a large portfolio of ibis and ibis budget hotels.
No price guide was given for the pubs, but they have a combined annual revenue that exceeds $11.6 million. They will be sold individually or in one line.
Iris Capital paid about $18 million for the Colombian, a three-storey former Westpac building on the corner of Oxford and Crown Streets, in October 2016, and then outlaid another $6 million for the multilevel Gaslight Inn at 278 Crown Street two months later.
The two venues have been significantly upgraded over the past decade, said JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group’s Ben McDonald, John Musca and Kate MacDonald, who are handling the sale.
Coastal pubs are also in demand. Hotelier Ben May’s Pavilion Hospitality Group has paid about $27 million for the Merewether Surfhouse in Newcastle. May also runs the Burleigh Pavilion in the Gold Coast, the Terrigal Pavilion on NSW’s Central Coast, and beach club Mrs Sippy in Bali.
The Merewether, a three-storey mixed hospitality pub overlooking the beach, was sold by a consortium including hoteliers and investors Tony Green, John Tierney and Mark Swadling, among others.
Further south along the coast, the Headlands Hotel at Austinmer has sold to JDA Collective, led by siblings John, Dean and Alexandra Feros. The hotel changed hands for about $44 million. The vendor was the development firm The Stevens Group.
The pub, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, was completely rebuilt in 2016. HTL Property’s Andrew Jolliffe and Dan Dragicevich advised on both sales.
Sydney’s booming western suburbs has a new hotel just as the number of visitors is expected to ramp up when Sydney’s second airport at Badgerys Creek opens.
Developed by a partnership between the Perich family and the ASX-listed EVT Hotels & Resorts, the Atura Oran Park, a 184-room hotel about 20 minutes from the airport, is set to open next month.
Hotel owners and operators expect the airport to spark strong growth as there is little accommodation available near the new airport.
The Atura has an Italian-inspired restaurant and bar, resort-style pool and terrace, conference and event facilities. It’s near the former Oran Park Raceway which ias one of the country’s largest master-planned communities is forecast to have more than 50,000 residents.
