Tumut’s landmark Oriental Hotel has been put to market, offering an all-round Riverina business roughly midway between Sydney and Melbourne.
The Oriental has stood over a prominent corner position of the Snowy Mountains Highway since the early 1850s, originally named the Queen’s Alms.
The large, two-storey Georgian-style pub enjoys a 1,467sqm lot, presenting an impressive, classic façade and fully restored wrought iron veranda with solid cast iron Corinthian columns, on two street frontages.
Inside there is an inviting public bar, with TAB and gaming area sporting five PMEs, a commercial kitchen and well-presented bistro seating plus private dining room, a pool room, and expansive covered beer garden at the rear. The former drive-through bottleshop is used for retail.
Upstairs there is lounge seating and a dry bar and popular function space, and eight well-appointed accommodation rooms.
The Hotel has seen consistent growth in trade under the control of the current owners, including licensee Ellen Webb, and reports average weekly revenue for FY20 (annualised from 42 weeks trading) of almost $31k – up 44 per cent since 2017.
Tumut is part of New South Wales’ Riverina Region, in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains, flanked to the east by the Tumut River, approximately 400 kilometres south-west of Sydney and 525 north-east of Melbourne. It is central to the pine softwood industry and massive Snowy 2.0 project.
The town was settled in the mid-1800s and home to plenty of historic buildings and over 6,000 residents, as well as a regular flow of tourists, highlighted by Tumut’s annual Festival of the Falling Leaf, celebrating the deciduous trees planted by early settlers.
Strong regional hotels have been gaining increased attention from established hoteliers looking to opportunity, and beyond the Oriental’s gaming offering, which would benefit from a smoking solution, new hardware, TITO and CRT, there remains a “great deal of potential” still to be realised.
“This includes marketing and promotion to enhance patronage in the accommodation component, with expected flow-on into other hotel departments,” offers Manenti Quinlan’s Leonard Bongiovanni, marketing the Hotel with colleague Jeremy Cusack.
The freehold going concern of the Oriental Hotel Tumut is being sold via Private Treaty, with price expectation of $2.3 million.
