Receivers have relisted Annandale’s stately Empire Hotel as the fallout from Jon Adgemis’ collapsed Public Hospitality portfolio takes the scalp of a would-be successor.
Bankrupt banker turned publican Jon Adgemis began amassing pubs around 2021, that year buying the Empire from Oscars for $12 million and going on to purchase 22 venues.
But deliberation and rumoured rescue packages weren’t enough to save Public and last October Deutsche Bank took back control of those it financed, including the Empire, appointed receivers and managers McGrath Nicol to oversee the divestments.
Starting mid-2025 long-time associate of Adgemis and CEO of Millinium Capital, Tom Wallace, began bidding for and buying former Adgemis venues, picking up both the vacant Town Hall Hotel in Balmain for $9.5 million and Three Weeds in Paddington for $20 million in July, and Kurrajong Hotel in Erskineville for around $22 million in September.
In January Millinium signed on for three more, as the Kospetas family’s Universal Hotels acquired Adgemis’ Claridge House for about $19 million.
But in the past weeks a failed dispute has meant Wallace did not settle on the deal worth over $101 million to buy the Empire for circa $21 million, the South Bondi Hotel for $60 million, and the Hotel Diplomat in Potts Point, for which he also offered around $21 million.
McGrath Nicol wasted no time getting back on the horse and have reportedly found a sale of the Diplomat to the ever-present Oscars Group for the slightly lower total of $20 million.
The fate of the South Bondi Hotel is yet to be announced.
The Empire, established in 1890, resides on a high-profile 803sqm corner site on Parramatta Road.
Its large trading footprint provides at street level a public bar, gaming with 19 machines, and two food activations, being Dale’s Pizza and the George Colombaris-installed Double Happy Chinese restaurant.
Extensive renovations have taken place on the upper floors, readying 21 ensuited, well-appointed accommodation rooms, touted as some of the best pub accommodation in Sydney, delivering consistent weekly revenue.
Benefitting from 3am extended trading approval Thursday through Saturday, across departments the hotel reports around $3.5 million in annual revenues, incorporating rental income from an Optus telecommunications tower on the roof.
Adjoining the hotel there is also another commercial building, which previously generated $70k in annual rent.
The sites are expected to directly benefit from the new state government and Inner West Council agreement rezoning large swathes of land in Leichhardt and Camperdown for construction of 8k new dwellings.
Appointed to manage the repeat sale campaign are HTL Property’s Andrew Jolliffe, Dan Dragicevich and Sam Handy, with Jolliffe relaying the previous campaigns were “the most active” they had seen and agents “anticipating strong interest” in the gaming, accommodation and landholding aspects of the Empire.
“As evidenced by the recent sales of the Courthouse Hotel in Newtown and White Cockatoo Hotel in Petersham, investor appetite for city fringe hospitality assets has been very strong in the first half of the year,” advises Handy.
