Pelathon has listed its burgeoning Lake Macquarie Orana Hotel, as it deploys capital to its expansion in the Sunshine State.
Jaz Mooney’s Pelathon Management Group (PMG) secured the coastal pub last year, via the estate settlement of long-time owner Malcolm Downie.
PMG executed a million dollar “top to bottom” renovation on the tired local, refurbishing the main bar, bistro, outdoor area and bottleshop, and installing a new gaming room.
The Group is in the practise of buying and selling, recently divesting in Sydney’s west, and purchasing two Queensland pubs from Town & Country group, atop an upcoming new venue in Cairns.
The overhauled Orana, formerly the New Orana, is just beginning to bear the fruits of its cultivation, and expecting broad interest in light of the building traffic of capital heading north from Sydney in search of yield opportunities, Mooney anticipates a lively response.
“It’s a fantastic hotel, well positioned, with huge traffic flows,” Mooney told PubTIC. “We bought from receivers, and spent a lot fixing it up and repositioning it into a family-friendly venue.”
Continuing the region’s migration that has seen Laundy Group buy the nearby Swansea Hotel for $13m, and Patrick Gallagher buy the Terrigal Hotel for $28m, CBRE Hotels reports around $26m in hotels under agreement in the area.
“The continued interest and strong bidding on coastal assets from Sydney-based operators has put downward pressure on cap rates, therefore sustaining high price levels in the region,” says CBRE’s Ben McDonald, who is marketing the asset with national director Daniel Dragicevich.
Occupying 2,307 m² in Blacksmiths, a beachside suburb of growing Lake Macquarie around 140 kilometres north of Sydney, the pub enjoys limited competition and a 3am licence. The “turn-key” operation is seeing rising average weekly sales already over $65,000.
The freehold going concern of the Orana Hotel is being sold via Expressions of Interest, closing Thursday, 22 June.
