Harbord hotelier Glenn Piper has signed to take on the long-term lease of Manly’s historic Q Station.
Q Station was Australia’s longest continuously operating quarantine station, until its closure as an operational maritime facility in March 1984.
It was operated and maintained by the National Parks & Wildlife Service (NWPS) for more than two decades, before Mawland Group signed a lease in 2006.
Mawland invested over $17 million on the 30-Ha site, and the original buildings now count multiple F&B outlets, including fine dining at the Boilerhouse Restaurant & Bar, function spaces catering for five to 180 people, 105 rooms of 4.5 star accommodation and an interpretive exhibition in the Visitor Centre.
The hotel’s expansive grounds incorporate its own private beach fronting Sydney Harbour.
Piper made a big splash on the northern beaches when he bought the Thorpe family’s long-held Harbord Hotel in early 2020.
Since that time, he has spent $3 million on a transformation that hasn’t finished yet, with further plans for boutique accommodation and a cafe.
Subject to formal approval from the (NPWS), Piper hopes to be into Q Station in February, picking up the lease until 2050 for somewhere near $20 million.
The new owners are looking to retain the 100 staff at the venue and have already begun a recruitment campaign.
Marketing literature on the venue cited upside in the addition of more accommodation. Piper is said to be planning a refresh of the lodgings, and increasing business in weddings and improving the overall food & bev offerings.
He is also hoping to improve access to the site and increase its prominence in the peninsula precinct, telling the Manly Daily he saw it as “a rare opportunity … of national significance”.
Sale of the leasehold was negotiated by CBRE Hotels’ Tom Gibson and Vasso Zographou, in collaboration with HTL Property’s Andrew Jackson and Nic Simarro, through a campaign that reportedly attracted over 250 enquires and landed 13 bids to purchase.
