The award-winning Provincial Hotel has found new owners, following a successful off-market sale campaign lead by JLL Hotels’ Lachlan Persley and Will Connolly. Located in one of the city’s most enviable locations on prestigious Lydiard Street, the sale of the Provincial Hotel follows the recent sale announcement of the nearby Heritage on Lydiard, reinforcing the Victorian market’s feverish desire for regional ‘mid-market’ style accommodation offerings. 

Luxuriously refurbished throughout with no expense spared, the hotel offers 23 individually styled, 1 and 2-bedroom guest suites and apartments, plus the highly regarded, 55-seat Lola restaurant, multiple function spaces, a stunning courtyard with a cocktail caravan, commercial kitchen and secure undercover parking. All underpinned by its close proximity to the recently completed $28.3 million Ballarat Station Precinct Redevelopment, located within a short stroll to the city’s CBD.

The sale of the Provincial Hotel is the second boutique style Ballarat hotel JLL Hotels has recorded in less than a month, with the freehold and business of the historic Heritage on Lydiard transacting recently, which was offered earlier this year as part of ‘The Ballarat Collection’, which comprised five CBD assets that included the neighbouring George Hotel.

The Provincial Hotel was acquired by local operators, following a hotly contested sales process, with Persley commenting “Given the variety of revenue drivers the hotel possessed, with its year-round consistent occupancy and meaningful food and beverage sales, the asset drew interest from an even spread of traditional moteliers along with local and metro Melbourne-based publicans.

This healthy mix of interest for the asset further demonstrates to our team that traditional publicans are identifying the intrinsic value that accommodation revenue can provide. A realisation that is likely to encourage a significant uplift in transactional activity for boutique hotel assets in the coming years,” Persley concluded.