The stately Criterion Hotel in Singleton has sold for around $3 million as strong regional assets continue to attract the attentions of opportunity-starved operators further afield.
The pub offers bar, bistro, large outdoor beer garden, gaming room with 14 EGMs and a separate building for events, under a 3am licence. The first half of FY2020 drew average weekly revenue of around $51k, with significant upside including no current smoking solution for the gaming.
Singleton is north of Sydney, 78 kilometres north-west of Newcastle, and home to over 16,000 residents. It forms part of the prosperous Hunter Valley region, with broad employment generators via mining, military and infrastructure.
Geelong-based publican Zac O’Sullivan purchased the pub in 2015. Shortly before the world fell into a pandemic he listed it on-market with HTL Property’s Blake Edwards and Xavier Plunkett, who now report sale to an unnamed operator.
The forced shutdown and suppressed activity have bred a backlog of “well-capitalised buyers”, according to Edwards.
“We have seen a sharp increase in activity since the recommencement of trade, and have been genuinely buoyed by the substantive nature of buyers currently active in the marketplace.”
While vendor apprehension has created another shortage of pub assets to market, agents predict a correction in the second half of the year as HTL cites the Criterion as its tenth regional sale in recent months.
“We anticipate this number potentially doubling by the end of the 2020 calendar year given our visible pipeline of assets,” added Plunkett.
