Northern Sydney icon the Epping Hotel has been acquired by Wallaby-turned-leading hotelier Bill Young, looking to capitalise on its connectivity and potential in a growth corridor.
The large-format pub is a landmark of the area, built in 1928. It holds a late-trading 3am licence and offers a lively public bar with regular live music, and a gaming room with 27 machines, on a 1,350sqm site directly opposite Epping Station.
Vendor on the sale was developer Lyon Group, which pivoted on its investment strategy as it separately begun a campaign on another site and listed the asset in July.
It reported weekly revenue exceeding $234k across bar, food, gaming and bottleshop operations, bolstered by capital works completed earlier this year that have delivered an uplift of more than 15 per cent. The sale was expected to fetch around $50 million.
A potential selling point was its future development potential, the prime location zoned E1 Local Centre, supporting commercial, retail, hospitality and community uses, with a 72-metre height limit and 6:1 floor space ratio.
The site is expected to benefit from Epping’s ongoing transformation, bringing significant infrastructure investment to support forecast population growth of around 31 per cent over the coming decade. Epping station is already the eighteenth busiest in NSW, servicing approximately 8.78 million passengers annually.
Epping is flanked by corporate hub Macquarie Park and the Parramatta LGA, which has become one of the strongest markets in NSW, recording annual growth over the past five years of 14.1 per cent.
Young Hotels, fronted by Bill Young, has reportedly paid $50 million for the freehold going concern, adding a “strategic, transport-oriented asset” to his growing NSW pub portfolio, which already includes the Concord Hotel, Palace Hotel Mortlake, Five Dock Hotel and Bar Broadway.
“We’re very pleased to secure the Epping Hotel, which we see as one of the most strategically positioned hotel assets in metropolitan Sydney,” says Young.
“The venue benefits from outstanding transport connectivity, a rapidly growing catchment and a strong existing trading platform.
“We’re excited to become part of the Epping community and look forward to continuing the hotel’s evolution while respecting the strength of what has already been established.”
Young declined to elaborate further on plans for the pub at this stage.
The sale campaign was managed by JLL Hotels’ Ben McDonald and Gus Moors, finding broad investor interest agents say reflects the demand for metropolitan hotels with robust fundamentals.
“The hotel offered an exceptionally rare combination of transport-oriented real estate, strong existing cashflow, gaming growth and long-term development upside,” notes McDonald.
“The breadth and quality of buyer participation was among the strongest we have seen for a metropolitan campaign in recent years.”
