Expanding hotelier Jim Knox has listed his Imperial of Inverell with immediate upside, as he pivots to focus on larger core investments.
The two-storey Georgian Imperial occupies a sizeable 2,063sqm corner in the epicentre of Inverell CBD’s commercial core, providing a high volume of pedestrian traffic. It includes a public bar and TAB, gaming room, commercial kitchen and bistro – not currently operating, function room, 23 pub-style accommodation rooms, and plenty of onsite parking.
It holds the latest-trading licence in town, and stands to benefit from reviving the food operation and accommodation, and providing a smoking solution for the gaming, with its 10 Band 3 EGMs. The only capital invested into the operation in recent times was installation of new machines, which has subsequently made the Imperial one of the highest-performing gaming operations of its size in regional NSW.
Inverell is a strong blue-collar town to the north-west of Sydney, just over 200 kilometres west of coastal Grafton. It boasts good employment and a thriving rural economy underpinned by mining and operations such as the Bindaree Beef abattoir, employing over 750 locals.
Knox purchased the pub in the first half of 2022 – along with the freehold of the Royal Hotel in Tingha – for close to $6 million, from Michael Painko, who had owned both and run the Imperial for close to 20 years.
Knox went on to buy the heaving Macca at Port Macquarie from Taphouse Group for circa $50 million, adding to his massive, under-renovation White Bull in Armidale, bought from the Gurrs in mid-2021, and his monopoly of five pubs in Moree, acquired late 2021 for circa $28 million.
Marketing literature on the Imperial specifies the “private owner-operator” is passing on Inverell to focus on the larger projects on hand.
A sales campaign is being managed by HTL Property’s Xavier Plunkett and Blake Edwards, who expect interest between seven and eight million for the asset.
“The Hotel enjoys favourable trading terms, due to the limited local pub competition and with only two hotels offering gaming in an active town of around 14,000 people,” notes Plunkett.
The freehold going concern of the Imperial Hotel Inverell is being sold via Expressions of Interest, closing Thursday, 22 June.
