HTL Property announce the successful sale and settlement of the Area Hotel in Griffith. The deal represents the largest single regional hotel sale for FY24.

The off-market transaction was brokered by Xavier Plunkett from HTL Property, in conjunction with Nick Tinning. 

The Vendor is private hotelier Jim Knox, who acquired the asset in 2019 for circa $8 million through HTL and has  enjoyed a handsome value uplift on his initial investment over the five-year period. The purchaser is a highly  regarded private investor with local connections.

The traditional style Hotel featured a public bar, TAB, commercial kitchen, beer garden, gaming room operating 30  highly valuable poker machines, 15 pub-style accommodation rooms, a two-bedroom manager’s residence, and  a 3am liquor licence.

“Griffith was our first foray into the hotel industry having acquired two other hotels, the Griffith Hotel and the Gemini  Hotel, back in 2014; and later the Area Hotel in 2019” offered Knox.

“The Griffith region has been very good to us, in our hotels business especially, but also our agriculture and  engineering-related enterprises. However, it poses geographical challenges for our key personnel and in the  medium term, we are looking to consolidate our holdings closer to our head office in the New England Region”  Knox added.

Knox currently retains the upmarket Gem Hotel, which boasts 65 4-star hotel rooms, an OLGR top 250 gaming  room and a steakhouse that has featured in the world’s top 100 best.

“Griffith enjoys some of the most desirable hotel fundamentals of any regional centre; full employment, well above  average incomes, enormous itinerant worker base, a favourable ratio of one pub per 7,000 residents; and government regulatory restrictions on any further pub competition. The incoming purchaser will no doubt enjoy a  long-term sustainable competitive advantage in the city” offered Xavier Plunkett.

“As an experienced brokerage firm, assisting valuable and long-term clients realize such favourable financial  outcomes, is the most rewarding part of the profession” continued Plunkett.

“Having sold Knox both into and out of the asset so successfully, highlights the value of deep client-broker relationships” Plunkett concluded.

The sale is a significant vote of confidence in the NSW Regional Market. The Riverina has always been a  prosperous region for A-grade regional pubs. HTL Property has now facilitated all five of the top five pub sales in  the region, including Jerrabomberra Hotel Jerrabomberra ($23.5 million), Thomas Blamey Tavern, Lake Albert ($25  million), Victoria Hotel, Wagga Wagga ($29 million), and Springdale Heights Tavern, Albury ($22 million).

“The record sale of the Area Hotel reinforces HTL’s considered view that sophisticated investors will prioritize the  asset class when comparing it to other commercial property holdings; particularly where the business model and  associated approvals required, provides for a scenario whereby barriers to entry for challenges to market share  remain so high” advised HTL Property Managing Director, Andrew Jolliffe.

The sale is the largest regional hotel sale for the last financial year and the largest ever pub sale in the wider Riverina district.