The Freehold Going Concern of Cleveland Winery in Victoria’s pristine Macedon Ranges has sold, marking yet another milestone in market confidence to the Victorian Regional Tourism & Leisure industry. The sale campaign was led by JLL Nick MacFie Associate Investment Sales along with Will Connolly Vice President Investment Sales.

JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group were exclusively appointed to sell the asset, set on an enormous 40.3 hectare site with facilities including 50 guest rooms, 7 function spaces, restaurant, and a cellar door with a working vineyard of varying grape variety. The sale campaign was led by Nick MacFie, Associate - Investment Sales, along with Will Connolly, Vice President - Investment Sales, and offered to the market via Expressions of Interest.

"The obvious attraction to purchasers was the opportunity of securing the asset as a Going Concern. With it came a property that presented enormous potential, yet included existing qualities such as meticulously curated grounds on a significant parcel of land, all just one hour from Melbourne’s CBD. It created somewhat of a perfect storm for owner-operators to update the property whilst taking advantage of existing infrastructure and amenity”, said Mr MacFie.

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In a stunning example of confidence for the region, the sale campaign closed under extremely competitive conditions with a total of eight offers received, with the successful bidder being the renowned and award-winning boutique hotel specialist, Lancemore Group. The Group’s strategic acquisition of Cleveland Winery adds to their existing regional Victorian portfolio comprising Lancemore Lindenderry Red Hill, Lancemore Mansion Hotel Werribee Park, Lancemore Macedon Ranges and Lancemore Milawa in the state’s Northern High Country.

With Julian Clark, CEO of Lancemore Group stating, “We feel that Cleveland Winery has some outstanding repositioning potential and our intention is to refurbish the property and operate it for generations to come. We love an opportunity to put the Lancemore touches on an existing asset and we are really excited about the future of Cleveland Winery”.

The sale of Cleveland Winery was secured after JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group’s successful sale of another regional boutique accommodation asset in late 2020, Bellinzona Resort in Hepburn Springs. Coupled with further opportunities in the regional tourism and leisure market for 2021 soon to be announced, JLL Hotels are expecting purchasers to be ‘bullish’ in their approach for well-positioned regional hospitality assets.

With Mr Connolly noting, “2021 is seeing a huge surge in intrastate travel given the easing of restrictions in the latter stages of last year. Our agency team are already fielding a significant increase in buyer demand for “drive to” tourism and leisure assets which has now only been heightened given the uncertainty surrounding state border closures. Properties like Cleveland Winery will no doubt be sought-after and our team look forward to announcing similar opportunities to the market in the coming weeks.”

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