The Gravanis brothers’ Oscars Hotels has divested Darlinghurst’s Strand Hotel to the Jon Adgemis-led JAGA Group.
Bill and Mario Gravanis have been particularly acquisitive over the past few years, purchasing the likes of the Beachcomber Resort on the Central Coast earlier this year, and Tattersalls in Penrith last year.
They had recently completed an extensive $3 million renovation and refurbishment at the Strand, which now includes 25 3.5-star ensuited accommodation rooms and an expanded gaming room for the 20 EGMs, atop its prized 24-hour liquor licence.
Rarely sellers of assets, the brothers cite portfolio hygiene and operational consolidation for the sale.
JAGA Group already own several similar strong accommodation pubs across Sydney, including Balmain’s Town Hall, Alexandria’s Camelia Grove and the nearby Exchange Hotel, which are being repositioned as hipster and millennial-friendly hotel accommodation by a team led by former Keystone director Paul Schulte.
JAGA reportedly paid around $17 million for the new asset.
The Strand is set on a 279sqm corner site with triple street frontage, and it’s understood JAGA may look to a DA for additional rooms, capitalising on the property’s B4 Mixed zoning, 22-metre height approval and healthy 4:1 FSR.
“The Strand is the fifth hotel we have bought with HTL Property,” offered Adgemis. “We’re grateful for their professionalism and pragmatism over the course of our long-standing relationship.”
Sale of the Strand follows proximate city-fringe pub sales including Moelis buying Darlinghurst’s Courthouse Hotel and Laundy buying Bells Hotel in Woolloomooloo. It comes only weeks after the listing of O’Malleys Hotel, also in Woolloomooloo, and Surry Hills’ Hotel Hollywood.
The deal was done through HTL Property’s Dan Dragicevich, Andrew Jolliffe and Sam Handy, in conjunction with JLL Hotels.
“What this sale serves to highlight, is not only the strengthening weight of outside capital, but also sophisticated interest in an asset class that has continued to rebound prosperously following 2020’s external challenges,” says Dragicevich.
