The stately Frisco Hotel in Woolloomooloo has been listed for sale by interstate owners, in what should be a keenly contested prize to round out 2023.
Built in 1856, the Frisco is a three-level building on a commanding 304sqm corner site, just metres from Woolloomooloo’s famous Finger Wharf and central to enduring waterfront restaurants such as China Doll, Otto, Kingsley’s and Manta.
The prominent harbourside establishment holds a midnight liquor licence and reports balanced revenues across bar, bistro, gaming with 17 machines, wagering and accommodation on the upper levels.
In 2019 it was acquired by Paul Xu’s Brisbane-based Sun Hotels, who took the heritage-listed Hotel from the Micola family.
Sun recently executed a major $1.5 million refurbishment and reconfiguration of the interiors, aiming to appeal to a more diverse customer base, attracting domestic and international tourists and naval officers as well as local workers and residents.
Marketing literature suggests an incoming operator might seek to reposition the business with a more sophisticated food and beverage concept in line with the high standard in the precinct, and the land holds favourable development planning controls, providing genuine redevelopment or repurposing options that could include retail, commercial, residential and accommodation (STCA).
Frisco’s notoriety and opportunity bodes interest from multiple buyer segments, pitting hoteliers against investors, developers and property trophy hunters.
Sources suggest it is likely to fetch sale price of around $16 million.
This campaign continues H2 inner city hotel sales that saw the Nags Head in Glebe sell in July, and both Newtown’s Kuleto’s and Redfern’s Tudor Hall Hotel sell in November.
Even closer, the Laundy family recently reopened the landmark Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel after a massive multi-million-dollar renovation.
Agents suggest established hospitality precincts such as Sydney’s Woolloomooloo, and Queen’s Wharf in Brisbane, create their own “level of collective magnetism” that guarantees high levels of precinct visitation.
Sale of the Frisco is being managed by HTL Property’s Brent McCarthy, Sam Handy and Andrew Jolliffe, and the company says it benefits from its previous proximate sales of Bells Hotel, the Old Fitzroy, and even the famous Woolloomooloo Bay.
“We are all too familiar with the unmistakable quality that underpins the strong levels of interest in harbourside precincts,” suggests Jolliffe.
The Frisco Hotel is being sold through an Expressions of Interest campaign, closing Wednesday, 21 December.
