The freehold of AVC’s Leopold Hotel and adjoining First Choice liquor market is on offer, as blue-ribbon hotel investments continue to attract investors from in- and outside the industry.
The 1907-built Leopold Hotel is located in the riverside suburb of Bicton, in south-west Perth, on the banks of the mighty Swan. It occupies a prominent 6,828sqm site on the corner of the Canning Highway and Point Walter Road.
A First Choice big box outlet was added in 2008, the combined offering benefitting from a mature and consolidated catchment and exposure to tens of thousands of passing vehicles daily.
Local owner of the passive freehold is Always Holdings P/L, led by Perth publican legend and former AFL star Tony Buhagiar, who debuted for East Fremantle in the early 1970s, going on to play for Essendon and Footscray.
The assets are securely leased to Liquorland (QLD) P/L until 2025, with further options until 2045. Liquorland (QLD) is a joint venture of Coles Group Limited and Australian Venue Co (AVC) formed in 2019, with AVC taking on operations at the 87 former Spirit Hotels pubs, across three states.
Rarely traded, passive freehold sales of First Choice sites in metro WA around 2015 occurred in Duncraig, finding a yield of 5.63 per cent, and in Baldivis, showing a yield of 6.04 per cent. A more recent example in Werribee, Victoria found contraction to 4.10 per cent.
Bicton’s Leopold and First Choice resemble the AAA-grade investment opportunity more typically seen in ALH freeholds, such as ALE’s current campaign to divest in Queensland and Victoria.
Always Holdings have engaged JLL Capital Markets’ Sean Flynn and JLL Hotels’ Chloe Mason to market the adjoining assets, buoyed by the strength of the operators and high barriers to entry.
“The irreplaceable covenant of Coles Group Limited, provides an investor with the opportunity to secure a true blue-chip retail and hospitality investment with an immense trade catchment area, and given the restrictions now placed on applications for big-box liquor licences, such opportunities are now few and far between,” offers Flynn.
“Whilst the First Choice underpins the value of the income stream in this case, it’s not lost on us that the offering also includes an iconic 100-year-old local pub,” added Mason.
The freehold interest in the Leopold Hotel and First Choice of Bicton is being sold via Expressions of Interest.
