Peter Calligeros and Stephen Farley are releasing the massive Acacia Ridge Hotel to a hot Sunshine State market.
After landing the trophy asset in mid-2014, business partners Calligeros and Farley have executed a calculated makeover and refresh of the business that has seen it climb the ranking of Queensland’s top pubs.
It is the first Top 10 gaming pub to be offered up in over a decade, and expected to fetch around $30 million. Calligeros, who is based in Sydney, and Farley, who has been operating the pub, are divesting ahead of Farley’s impending retirement.
Occupying an 18,450 m² site on busy Beaudesert Road, it offers further upside of development potential, in an area seeing rapid growth, including the slated $600 million Cornerstone Living master plan development at Cooper Plains.
The Acacia Ridge boasts a balanced business, which includes a large drive-through bottleshop, multiple bars and conference facilities, 34 accommodation rooms, 45 EGMs, and parking for 230 cars.
It is being marketed by Ray White Hotel’s Asia-Pacific director, Andrew Jolliffe, in conjunction with CBRE’s Glenn Price in Queensland, and with investor and operator business conditions “vibrant” and investment in the area’s infrastructure growing further, the site is prime for potential.
“Accordingly, the critical land size upon which the Acacia Ridge Hotel is located, a proportion of which is supplementary to the current hotel operation needs, provides an astute investor with ancillary mixed use, or conversely wholesale alternative use opportunities,” said Price.
Queensland’s south-east has been seeing big-ticket sales, such as the $20 million paid for the Treetops Tavern, and Colonial Leisure Group’s entry to the state with purchase of the Fox Hotel. Activity has been buoyed by the economic conditions and upcoming Commonwealth Games, to be in 2018.
Sydney-based Jolliffe says the features add up to the perfect mix for investors.
“We’ve seen the depth of the market tested several times this year in gateway cities across the Australian East Coast, and the almost invariable result has been that high quality assets which enjoy a confluence of both scale and opportunity remain compelling and commensurately sought after by well-informed capital.
“This is a critical mass play, whereby we are bringing to the market a prime commercial property holding, set proudly upon major arterial road and which has historically generated significant annual profit in a geographical area that regularly welcomes 140,000 residents and workers.”
Calligeros, who owns North Sydney’s Rag & Famish and Mount Street Terrace, recently purchased the Trinity Bar from Ray Reilly. PubTIC was unable to reach Peter Calligeros in time for publication.
The Acacia Ridge Hotel will be sold via a national Expressions of Interest process, ending late October. Price expectations are reported to be around $30m.
