Ending nearly four decades at the helm and a year-long settlement comes announcement industry legend Adella Wright-Young has sold the Camelia Grove Hotel of Alexandria to Sydney publican-developers.
Wright-Young purchased the Camelia from Tooth and Co in 1983. Signalling the end was near, she listed the freehold going concern in late 2019.
While contracts were exchanged at the start of 2020, an extended settlement saw the incumbent trade through the most challenging year in hospitality, continuing a dedication that triggers mixed emotions even now on the eventual sale.
“After so many years it is bittersweet to be selling the hotel which has been not only my business but my home for so very long,” she says. “The patrons and local community become close family and friends.
“But I still work most days, so the sale will give me some free time to do other things; most notably spend more time with my family.”
Occupying a modest corner of Henderson Road and Alexander Street in Alexandria since the 1860s, the pub known locally as ‘The Cammy’ counts a bistro, beer garden, gaming with 19 machines, and a manager’s residence.
It also holds future mixed-use development potential courtesy of the existing B4 Mixed-use zoning, 18 metre height approval and 3:1 FSR, located just metres from Australia Technology Park, with its shopping centre, childcare centre, gym, and 10,000 CBA employees.
The Cammy has now sold to local developer Jaga Group, steered by KPMG investment banker Jon Adgemis, which already counts hybrid pub developments in Balmain’s Exchange and Town Hall hotels, and Erskineville’s Swanson Hotel.
Sources say the sale price was within the marketed price expectation of circa $16 million, through HTL Property’s Blake Edwards and Sam Handy.
HTL anticipates the Sydney metropolitan mid-market to be a very active segment in 2021, and has earmarked appropriate focus and resources toward campaigns expected to emulate the results at Alexandria.
“The combination of a shortage of prime opportunities in the Sydney market, and a site like this with such raw potential, was always expected to attract huge interest from a wide variety of buyer profiles,” says Edwards.
