The Freehold Interest of North Melbourne’s Courthouse Hotel has come to market, offering investment, owner-occupation, and development angles for prospective purchasers. This high-profile corner opportunity is being exclusively offered for sale via JLL’s Jesse Radisich, Will Connolly and Mingxuan Li via an ‘Expressions of Interest’ campaign.

Positioned proudly as one of North Melbourne’s most dominant local landmarks, the Courthouse Hotel sits on the corner of Errol Street and Queensberry Street, and overlooks the busy Errol Street retail strip whilst being strategically located just 1km to Melbourne’s CBD, the Queen VIC Market, and the hospital/medical and university precincts. Leased until May 2022, the property offers the ultimate flexibility to either re-position and grow with its favourable Mixed-Use Zoning and combined 38m of street frontage, or to take the reins of one of Melbourne’s first ‘gastro pubs’ and deliver your own culinary vision.

Jesse Radisich, Director of JLL Melbourne Commercial Sales, anticipates the property will command interest from a wide array of buyer profiles. “This really is an opportunity that really ticks all of the boxes, with flexibility to continue the current pub operation, refurbish or reposition into an alternate use, or take advanced of the Mixed-Use Zoning and prime corner position to deliver a landmark project in this tightly held retail pocket”.

Errol Street is undergoing somewhat of a renaissance in recent years, with numerous high quality hospitality operations and first-class retailers calling the tightly held retail pocket home. Retail rents in the strip have now cracked the $1,000/sqm mark, underscoring the demand for space in the strip. “We would not be surprised to see a savvy investor reposition this high-profile asset into a retail/office use, given the strength of rents in the immediate precinct and very low vacancy levels” Jesse said.

Encompassing a total building area of 530sqm, the property is being sold with a flexible ‘General’ liquor licence and provides an array of trading zones over two levels including a main public bar, two separate dining rooms, commercial kitchen with rear laneway access and a first-floor function room with views across Errol Street and Queensberry Street. The property also includes multiple existing accommodation rooms – providing yet another value-add opportunity to introduce boutique style accommodation in a highly strategic locale.

Coming off what was an unprecedented year of pub transactions in 2021, Will Connolly, Vice President of JLL Hotels expects this momentum to continue with Courthouse Hotel, “our team have picked up in 2022 much where we left off last year, buyer demand for hotel assets, especially within Metro Melbourne are as high as they have ever been. A true ‘blank canvass’ opportunity like the Courthouse Hotel will now allow us to be in dialogue with either passive hotel investors or owner occupiers whom we’re extremely confident will be attracted to the character and rich history of this incredible property.”

The Freehold Interest of the Courthouse Hotel at 86-90 Errol Street, North Melbourne is available via Expressions of Interest closing Wednesday 2 March at 2pm.

For more information contact the agents via the contact form below. 

image15.jpg