After more than six decades holding the keys, the Hasset family has sold the iconic Carlisle Castle Hotel in Newtown to leading Sydney group Universal Hotels.
Built 1876 and rich in heritage and character, the Castle is one of the precinct’s most recognisable pubs, the parapet adorned with a gold statuette of a lion and a stunning Italian marble bar greeting entrants.
It provides a public bar, bistro operated by an outside party, gaming room with 10 machines (entitlements), popular beer garden, 13 accommodation rooms let to long-term residents, and a bottleshop, on a 569sqm site.
Situated just moments from Newtown’s King Street – one of Sydney’s premier hospitality precincts – and institutions such as the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and University of Sydney, patronage includes the hordes of students and professionals that come to the area.
Previously owner-operators, more recently the Hasset family has had the pub under a lease to Surfside Hotel Group.
Seeing the latest lease expire and the Castle operated under management, the family posed the end of more than 60 years of continuous ownership and put the asset to market.
A sale campaign noted uplift potential in several channels, suggesting the incoming buyer could reclaim the foodservice offering and capitalise on the buoyant f&b trade in the area, or by upgrading the accommodation.
Marking a new chapter in the hotel’s evolution, the freehold going concern has been bought by Universal Hotels, led by the Kospetas family, bringing a strong track record of repositioning assets through considered refurbishment and tight operational management.
Further expanding its footprint in the inner west, already counting the Enfield Hotel, bought late last year, and LGBTQ+ icon the Imperial Hotel in Erskineville, Universal says the Castle is an “historic staple” of the area and another proud acquisition.
“We plan to rejuvenate the pub to its former glory working alongside well known operating partners (to be announced soon),” group CEO Harris Kospetas told PubTIC.
“Our focus will be on keeping it local and true to Newtown, with a heavy emphasis on food, local beer and community.”
The sale campaign through MQ & Associates’ Leonard Bongiovanni and Tom Cullen, which took time to finalise due to multiple moving parts, reportedly attracted strong interest, driven by the hotel’s prominent corner landholding and location within one of Sydney’s most vibrant precincts.
“The property represented a generational opportunity, and the level of enquiry reflected the continued demand for quality inner-city hotel assets,” relayed Bongiovanni.
“To be entrusted with and involved in the sale of a hotel that had been held in the same family for over 60 years was a privilege.”
