Picturesque mountain top pub the Archibald Hotel is being offered as owner Andrew Hutton looks to opportunities further afield.
The Archibald resides on a generous 8,335sqm on the high traffic Bells Line of Road, in Kurrajong Heights.
It offers a public bar, bistro, gaming room with eight PMEs, and a well-patronised dual access drive-through bottleshop.
The outdoor areas also boast “unbelievable” views to the east.
Unusual for a pub, the site holds residential zoning, permitting 450sqm lots.
Today’s structure was built by the owners of the former Hydro Majestic, which burned down at the site in the 1970s.
Andrew Hutton had driven past the pub for years and dreamed of owning it – finally taking the plunge in 2018. He also owns the heritage-listed Royal Hotel at Capertee, near Mudgee.
Found around 73 kilometres north-west of Sydney, in the foothills of the Blue Mountains west of the Hawkesbury River, Kurrajong Heights SA2 counts over 22k residents, and the Archibald is the only pub in the area.
Together through a global pandemic and natural disasters, residents have found haven at their hub.
“Through the fires and the floods, the pub has really garnered the support of the community, which it hadn’t had in a while,” notes Hutton.
He has recently secured approval for a function space on the rooftop, to take advantage of the stunning views.
“On a clear day you can see from the Central Coast down to Wollongong.”
The opportunity put Hutton into a mindset of either investing at Kurrajong, or cashing in and capitalising at the boutique accommodation hotel he has in mind to the west.
“There’s a lot of potential there, but I decided to look to maximising my potential at Capertee,” he says of the decision to sell.
Holding appeal as an ongoing operation in a high-profile location, with or without development, the field of interested buyers is expected to be broad, and sale price likely to be circa $10 million.
“The Archibald holds a special place for those who’ve used the Bells Line of Road over the Blue Mountains, perfectly positioned to feed the many travellers returning from trips to Bathurst, Orange, and Mudgee,” suggests Nick Butler of Savills, marketing the property.
“Most importantly, the residential zoning opens a vast array of possibilities for development – with the option to keep the hotel operating in its current form with partial development of the site, or moving the licence and entitlements to allow for a highly profitable full scale residential development with never to be built-out views (STCA).”
The Archibald Hotel is being offered as a freehold vacant possession via Expressions of Interest, closing Friday, 14 October.
