Veteran hotelier Alistair Flower has boosted his accommodation footprint in Port Macquarie with purchase of the adjacent and complementary Macquarie Barracks Motor Inn.
The motor inn is set on a large lot beside arterial Hastings River Drive, offering 37 rooms, as well as two function rooms and a pool area, all beset with the kind of nostalgia found in 1980s roadside accommodation.
It previously had a restaurant, but it was closed. It still holds an approved DA to convert an onsite residence into more rooms.
Pertinently, the motel adjoins Flower’s award-winning Settlers Inn.
Macquarie Barracks initially came to market as a leasehold opportunity by Regional Motels, and Flower shifted the conversation to sale of the freehold, which settled last week.
“Publicans are always trying to maximise their footprint,” he explains.
“We had a large motel next door. The lease became available and I negotiated to buy the property too, in a perfect opportunity to extend.”
Holding a favourable position on the NSW mid-north coast, roughly midway between Sydney and Brisbane, on the route to the major tourism destinations of Byron Bay and the Gold Coast, Port Macquarie counts population of around 93k but caters to the constant influx of tourists and both white- and blue-collar travellers.
Settlers Inn – aka ‘Setts’ – is a thriving f&b pub that already has a modest six rooms, equipped with ensuites and air-conditioning and trading well.
The addition of the Motor Inn will greatly enhance the accommodation offering, and the group plan to proceed with the DA, which will bring the pub’s total to around 50 rooms.
“Our strategy is to create a precinct, on 3.5 acres in a growth town,” says Flower.
“The integration works perfectly for us, and there’s further opportunity over time to consolidate resources and costs with our other operations.”
Beyond simply adding more accommodation, Flower hopes to attract more families and professionals out on the road to stop in for a meal, amenities and an overnight stay.
Port Macquarie is also the site of a broad array of events, taking place most weeks, and the plan is to ramp up events exposure, hosting functions, seminars and conferences, where people can eat and drink next door and stay in the motel.
There is also consideration to install additional features, such as a wellness centre or gym on the large site.
The expanded business cements Settlers as one of the premium regional pubs on the NSW coast.
Flower says they are still assessing the angles for a collective name to spin off the well-known pub.
“I’m looking to reinvigorate the brand and this is an opportunity to play with its personality and feel, incorporating the motel into renovations we’re doing at Settlers.”
In 2022 Flower partnered with industry legend Arthur Laundy to buy the Mercure Hotel at Port Macquarie, meaning they now keep around 160 rooms in the city and accommodation is becoming a significant part of the business. In due course there will be capacity to apply their scale to marketing and administration and benefit from shared resources.
Furthermore, Flower Hotels’ Hastings Hotel, around 20 kilometres west of Settlers, which closed its accommodation during COVID, will re-emerge in six weeks after a multi-million-dollar renovation that will welcome 13 hotel rooms back into the business.
Sale of the Macquarie Barracks was through MQ & Associates’ Malcolm Mathie and Ray Larkin, who settle a further two properties being divested by Regional Motels in the coming weeks as part of the group’s strategic sell-down
Agents note the trend of publicans looking at accommodation assets is increasing, given the “natural extension” to hospitality provided by motels and such businesses.
“We’re seeing a growing number of successful pub owners looking at accommodation as the next step in expanding their hospitality interests,” says Mathie.
“They understand the operational side of the business and are looking for quality assets in locations where there is strong underlying demand.”
