After four decades at the helm, the 82-year-old owner of Darlinghurst’s Brighton Hotel is calling it a day and has listed the landmark pub for $8 million.
Located on the prominent corner of Oxford and Riley Streets, just two blocks from Taylor Square, the Brighton – aka the Brighton Up Bar – has been owned and operated (intermittently) by the same family since 1977.
Occupying a 127sqm plot, the four-level brick structure boasts floor area of 480sqm and has seen considerable reinvention on high-life Oxford St in the past 40 years, but reportedly the interior has remained largely the same.
It offers a public bar and performance area focusing on live music, and modest gaming operation with three EGMs. The music engagement has earned the venue the half-hour extension to the 1:30am lockouts and 3am closing time, provided for by Liquor & Gaming.
Uniquely, the Brighton holds two residential apartments on the top two floors, offering valuable rental or reinvention opportunities in a location around ten minutes’ walk from Town Hall Station.
While enjoying strong trade, the low exposure to gaming and upside potential see an $8m sale price – considerably more achievable than that of Sam Arnaout’s Colombian Hotel, acquired for $15m late 2016, just a block away.
The Hotel is being marketed as a freehold vacant possession by Knight Frank’s Mike Wheatley and Kate MacDonald on behalf of the private vendor.
“We think the time is right for a sale in the area,” MacDonald told PubTIC. “This is probably one of the last opportunities in the near future to obtain a freehold of that prominence on Oxford St.”
