Redcape Hotel Group has gone coastal, acquiring Caves Coastal Bar & Bungalows in Lake Macquarie from the Gravanis brothers’ Oscars Hotels.
Caves Beach Hotel resides on nearly a full hectare of unobstructed oceanfront in the popular and growing seaside precinct, close to Swansea, around 40 minutes south of Newcastle.
The business includes a sports bar, bistro, gaming room with 17 EGMs, and large function and conference rooms, catering to bespoke events on the water.
The sale included freehold ownership of eighteen two- and three-bedroom bungalows, as well as management rights to a pool of adjacent resort villas.
Across f&b, functions and accommodation departments it reports weekly revenue exceeding $200k.
Bill and Mario Gravanis purchased the property early 2022 from a partnership of the Malouf family’s Royal Hotels and Marty Short for circa $35 million. They had held it for close to a decade and expanded operations at the resort-style venue.
Bill Gravanis declined to comment on the sale now to Redcape.
The pub group, backed by MA Financial, has reportedly paid $40 million for the asset, which furthers Redcape’s strategy of expanding in the Newcastle and Central Coast regions.
Caves Beach adds a large-scale hotel with expansive accommodation to its growing Hunter and Central Coast portfolio, following its recent acquisition of six pubs in the area plus the QT Hotel Newcastle from Iris, and the $36 million purchase of The Entrance Social Club Hotel from the Thomas family.
“We are very excited to add Caves Beach to the portfolio and welcome the local community and team onboard,” says Redcape MD Chris Unger.
“Caves is a sought-after large-format pub with a strong and diverse trading history, and enjoys a highly desirable mix of both localised and tourist driven customers.
“On top of all this, it is underpinned by a large ocean front land holding in an area marked for future residential growth nearby.”
The transaction was managed by JLL Hotels’ John Musca, who notes the trend toward sustainable accommodation.
“Coastal assets with large trading footprints offer seasonal operating scalability, with the Caves sale evidencing the discernible trend towards experienced pub groups seeking substantial accommodation revenues to incorporate into their portfolios.”
