Award-winning local institution Jack Duggan’s Irish pub in Bathurst has been sold to a growing regional hotel group.
A pub has been trading on the site since 1849. Originally named the Daniel O’Connell Inn, it later became the Commercial Hotel.
It was bought by a partnership of Glyn and Helen Daunt and Peter and Shannon Barrett in 2008, who renamed it again, to Jack Duggan’s, in a nod to the legend of the ‘wild colonial boy’ who broke out of Bathurst Gaol to become a bushranger in 1829, but also to better reflect the area’s rich history and strong Irish-Australian connection.
The two-storey pub offers a traditional front bar, gaming room, bistro and commercial kitchen, lounge seating and rear outdoor seating, and 10 accommodation rooms upstairs, enjoying a veranda overlooking George Street.
The partnership put it to market earlier this year, citing weekly revenue (full year FY19) of around $45k.
Bathurst is an historic regional city with population of circa 45k residents boasting many period buildings and an enviable calendar of events, headlined by the iconic annual Bathurst 1000.
The purchaser is reported to be a “regional-based hotel group seeking a prime passive investment” with future plans to lease the operation following minor capex.
Sale of the Bathurst pub follows a steady flow of recent regional transactions, including the Blue Mountain Hotel Lawson, and the Laundy partnership’s sale of Hotel Canobolas in Orange to the Sukkar family, both brokered by MQ & Associates.
On Jack Duggan’s, agents suggest activity in the greater region will assure a strong future for the Irish pub.
“The proposed $70 million Bathurst Integrated Medical Centre development on the same block will also drive increased trade during construction and once the centre is complete,” said MQ’s Leonard Bongiovanni, who brokered the sale.
