The Despotovski family are calling time on the game, listing their large-format Commercial Hotel in the middle of the commercial and burgeoning harbourside precinct of Port Kembla.
For the past 38 years the hotel, positioned on a 1,818sqm landholding on main drag Wentworth Road, has been owned and operated by the Despotovskis.
The blue-collar pub holds a 24-hour liquor licence and has been focused on live sport, local footy and gaming, its 24 EGMs regularly ranked high in Liquor & Gaming’s NSW hierarchy. It also has a commercial kitchen and 16 accommodation rooms plus a downstairs manager’s residence and generates circa $140k in weekly revenue.
Port Kembla is a crucial trade gateway, known for a heavy industrial manufacturing presence and steel manufacturing, being home to the Blue Scope steelworks complex, and for bulk exports such as grain and coal. Both the inner and outer harbour precincts serve as 24/7 operations.
But the region is also undergoing urban renewal initiatives, connecting the CBD and improving pedestrian activity, encouraging mixed-use redevelopment and enhancing the streetscape to service the growing residential community, drawn to a coastal lifestyle with picturesque beaches, harbour foreshore and nature reserves.
“We have dearly loved being such a big part of the Port Kembla community, but the time has come to pass the torch to a new owner,” says vendor Jimmy Despotovski.
“There are incredibly strong growth prospects for the venue as Port Kembla gentrifies and families move into the area, and it needs a group with the food expertise to activate it into a more family-friendly destination — one which will better resonate with this burgeoning community.”
Growth prospects for the region are underpinned by the Port Kembla Land Transformation Masterplan, allocating 200-Ha of surplus land beside Blue Scope to be a multi-use innovation precinct, supporting an additional work force of 30k in the sectors of advanced manufacturing, renewable energy, technology and education.
A product of a focus on gaming, further upside is seen in the Commercial through reactivation of its underutilised areas and kitchen and attentions on the accommodation, which is under performing when benchmarked against nearby competitors.
Its assets and potential amount to a likely sale price in the mid-twenty-millions.
Large format hotel transactions in the Illawarra region in recent years include Chris Feros buying the Ocean Beach Hotel in Shellharbour in 2024, Redcape selling the Central Hotel Shellharbour in 2023, and Damian Kelly’s Peak Investments selling the Corrimal Hotel to Kent Walker in early 2022.
A sale campaign on Port Kembla’s Commercial is being managed by HTL Property’s Blake Edwards and Sam Handy in an Expression of Interest process closing Thursday, 17 September, who note “very few” hotels of this type ever become available on either the north or south coast of NSW.
“The Commercial Hotel presents with two very rare investment fundamentals, being the combination of a Top200 gaming hotel, and being owned and operated by a single-asset pub owner,” suggested Edwards.
“It’s no surprise the Despotovski family have received unsolicited overtures from experienced hoteliers.”
Feature image: Google maps.
