On behalf of 30-year private owners, JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group is delighted to announce the swift sale of the Shaws Bay Hotel & Fenwick House, East Ballina. Sold for circa $31 million to Sydney group Parras Hospitality, the transaction was managed by JLL’s John Musca, Ben McDonald and Kate MacDonald.

Sold in rapid fire time, JLL Managing Director John Musca suggested, “Under new custodianship, the assets are both deserved and primed for a fully-integrated renovation and rebirthing proposition that will see the evolution of an exciting hospitality precinct offer, commensurate with their spectacular location”.

Only 25 minutes from Byron Bay, the Shaws Bay Hotel with 14 gaming machines and Fenwick House manor occupy a unique 6,518sqm absolute waterfront site with an attractive B1 Neighbourhood Centre zoning. Positioned at the entrance to the East Ballina growth corridor, the hotel is poised to capitalise on the area’s population and airport visitor arrival growth which is platforming the burgeoning and much-publicised North Coast property boom. Previously utilised as a bar and boarding house, Fenwick House lends itself to a myriad of value-add operating opportunities including boutique hotel, coworking or commercial office concepts or function uses with the necessary council approvals.

The hotel investment market continues to mature in its recognition that there are no yield benchmarks for irreplaceable coastal pub hotels, with business cases differing for each remarkable location, so transactions have evidenced a wide range from 3% - 7%.

JLL have been at the forefront of the North Coast hospitality property investment wave which includes the sales of the Beach Hotel, Great Northern Hotel, Cheeky Monkeys and Holiday Village Backpackers - all in Byron Bay - with the Shaws Bay & Fenwick House rounding off over $250m of transactions. Other hotel sales in the region have supported this capital flow including the Lennox Hotel, Lennox and Illawong Hotel, Evans Head, which have also found new owners in the past 6 months. From Merivale to Redcape and the Laundy Group, a raft of big name private and public industry stakeholders have secured themselves prime hospitality assets in the globally recognised region over the past 18 months.

“The Shaws Bay purchasers confidently backed their vision, expeditiously moving to exceed the owner’s pricing expectations and cognisant that a significant capital deployment can undoubtedly deliver a very special hospitality asset in the future,” Musca stated. “Naturally there’s always a lot of emotion that accompanies long-term owners farewelling a family asset, so realising a great result and seeing its custodianship pass to a new and respectful stakeholder is a fulfilling outcome”.

To request a sales analysis please contact the selling agents JLL’s John Musca, Ben McDonald and Kate MacDonald via the below contact details.

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