Marcello Colosimo has taken an inner west hattrick, picking up Dixon’s historic Nag’s Head Hotel in Glebe.
Former Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon and business partners David Birkbeck and Russ Lowe’s vehicle DBL Pub Group bought the 1860s-built pub in 2015 from industry doyens the O’Hara family.
The O’Haras had owned and lived it for 15 years, during which time mum was licensee, all seven kids worked the Nag, and both Dan O’Hara and his brother met their wives there.
DBL continues to own and operate the Blues Point Hotel in Milsons Point, and the Plough & Harrow Hotel in Camden.
Sources say Momento Hospitality has now paid in the region of $12 million for the Nags Head – significantly representing the third Sydney city-fringe hotel purchase in as many months, following acquisition of both the Royal Albert in Surry Hills, and previously the Friend In Hand, also in Glebe.
Marcello Colosimo, group CEO, studied at UTS, just a short walk from the Friend In Hand, and has plans for recruitment and training at the city-fringe operations, atop incorporating them into the group’s bigger picture.
“Our recent purchase of three inner-city freehold hotels speaks to a strategy around portfolio balance, and also an opportunity to activate some food and beverage levers we have been formulating and look forward to activating,” he says.
The off-market sale was managed by HTL Property’s Andrew Jolliffe and Sam Handy, citing the investor appeal in end-to-end assets such as pubs.
“We’re encouraged by the positive activity exhibited by sales across multiple states in Australia over the past few weeks, and submit that this should serve to illustrate the quality of investment opportunities enjoyed by this property-backed and hospitality-fronted asset class,” says Jolliffe.
