ALH Group has teamed again with Charter Hall to purchase the Tandara Hotel in Sarina from pub pundits Waratah Hotel Group.
The Tandara occupies a large 5,100sqm corner block fronting the Bruce Highway and Central Street, in coastal Mackay. It offers public bar, TAB, bistro, gaming with 31 Coastal authorities, beer garden, 15 motel rooms, and a dual lane drive-through bottleshop.
The freehold has been acquired by Charter Hall, which has become the hotel industry’s largest property partner.
ALH, Australia’s largest pub operator, boasting more than 350 licenced venues, takes on a long-term lease. This closely follows the tenant-landlord duo’s recent purchase of the Emu Hotel and bottleshop in Adelaide for $32 million.
Vendor at ‘The Tandy’ was unlisted and stapled property investment group Waratah Hotels, led by CEO Darren Baker, which also recently sold the Diplomat Hotel in Alice Springs to Sam Arnaout’s Iris Capital.
Waratah announced in July a special distribution to stakeholders, adding to previous payments to total 38.0c per unit for the 2022 financial year. This resulted from completion of transactions including sale of the Amaroo Tavern in Moree to Jim Knox late last year, and the Victoria Hotel in Wagga Wagga to Harvest for $29 million, which settled in May.
Sources suggest sale of the Tandara to ALH fetched in the region of $12 million.
“Numerous seasoned syndicators like Waratah Hotel Group and The Duxton Group are taking advantage of buoyant market conditions, repositioning their respective portfolios through the divestment of assets and the strategic acquisition of others,” explains HTL Property’s Glenn Price, who brokered the sale with colleague Brent McCarthy.
“This activity has also led to a new wave of investment capital and unlisted vehicles such as Harvest Hotel Group, which has itself been breaking significant ground upon the national landscape, drawn to it by the competitive benefits of scale.”
