Continuing the spate of city fringe assets coming to market, Redfern’s Woolpack Hotel has been listed for sale as its owners look to an exit from pubs.
The three-storey hotel, in the Federation Free Style architectural mode, provides a well-rounded business with public bar and street seating, regular live music, gaming with 13 machines, midnight liquor licence, bottleshop, and accommodation rooms on the upper floors.
There is scope to convert parts of the first and second floors into trading areas, as well as potential activation of a rooftop bar (STCA).
Situated on Chalmers Street, at the eastern end of Redfern’s main retail and commercial precinct, the pub is at the edge of two of Sydney’s largest urban renewal projects, the Waterloo Estate and the Central to Eveleigh Urban Corridor, heralding approximately 7,000 new dwellings for the precinct.
Marty Short invested in the area with the Tudor Hotel, a block away, on Pitt St. Short also owns Redfern’s Misfits hotel on George St, bought late 2016.
The Woolpack is being sold by private investors Geordie Clark and James Henty, who purchased it out of receivership in 2009 for $3.2 million, representing a yield of around 11.25 per cent.
The pair have operated the property under full management.
Clark is a former director of JLL Hotels, with interests across multiple industries. The partners divested their ownership of the Kincumber Hotel in late 2019, and the Woolpack is their last hotel asset.
Boasting balanced revenues across departments, the pub is likely to fetch sale price of circa $11 million.
The sale campaign is being managed by HTL Property’s Andrew Jolliffe, Dan Dragicevich and Sam Handy, following their recent deals on comparable Sydney CBD fringe assets such as the Hotel Hollywood in Surry Hills and the New Hampton Hotel in Potts Point, announced last week.
Coincidentally, sale of the Woolpack in 2009 was Dragicevich’s first deal, under the tutelage of Joel Fisher.
“The Redfern/Waterloo catchment is set to undergo an exciting transformation over the next 10-20 years, and we expect plenty of hoteliers will be motivated by the idea of securing a trading platform within the precinct,” says Dragicevich.
The freehold going concern of the Woolpack Hotel is being sold via Expression of Interest, closing Thursday, 8 July.
