Jewel of south Townsville the Oonoonba Hotel has sold to a partnership including an interstate hotelier and two newcomers to pub ownership.
The suburban stalwart was established in 1963, on a big 3,739sqm corner block with double street frontage, close to shopping centres, schools, residential complexes and the Townsville CBD.
The Hotel offers a public bar, family-friendly bistro, gaming with 28 machines, covered beer garden, eight motel rooms, around 60 onsite parking spaces and a dual-lane drive-through bottleshop, but no satellite bottleshops.
It saw significant renovation in 2010, bringing a flexible layout with central bar for multiple areas.
Townsville’s economy is thriving, attracting new infrastructure, and the Oonoonba pub, with local population around 7,400 people, enjoys minimal competition. For the past seven years it has been managed for the passive owners, RR Holdings P/L, by the Brisbane-based Sean Williams management.
Late 2018 it was put to market along with the Commercial Hotel in Redbank by the freehold owners, who reside in Perth and after holding the assets for nearly a decade deemed it time to sell.
Oonoonba was billed as having upside potential in its gaming room, which lacked a full complement of modern games or handling options, and would benefit from reconfiguration to provide access from the carpark.
While the Commercial was sold, Ooonoonba was not.
Waiting out the pandemic, the passive investors determined to relist the asset early 2022, in a campaign by HTL Property’s Glenn Price and Brent McCarthy.
“The Hotel has operated under full management for over 10 years,” noted Price of the opportunity.
Queensland’s regulator, OLGR, has regularly been criticised for the time it takes to approve transfer applications, and after nearly eight months the Oonoonba was finally filed as approved in February.
The buyer is the newly-formed PMJ Operations, incorporated last June, comprising well-known publican Jaz Mooney, alongside a Brisbane-based builder and Brisbane-based commercial agent Paul Fraser.
Mooney recently sold his Normanby Hotel in Brisbane through Fraser.
Agents would not provide any comment or information beyond confirming the pub had sold, but the sale price being quote during the campaign was for offers over $7 million.
