Patrick Gallagher and partners have found success in the sale of their large-format Meadowbrook Hotel, tempting a New South Welshman into a thriving gaming operation in the heart of Queensland’s south-east.
Located roughly midway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, the pub enjoys an ideal catchment encompassing retail, commercial, medical, industrial and residential premises, being adjacent to the Woolworths-anchored Meadowbrook Shopping Centre and proximate to both Griffith University and the Logan City Hospital.
Logan City has experienced some of the State’s highest population growth, seeing projections surpassing state and national averages, and the Hotel is well-positioned to benefit from wider demand drivers in what is a well-known gaming corridor.
Built in the late ‘90s on a 5,934sqm site, the hotel benefits from an efficient design and layout, presenting sports bar, bistro, gaming room with 40 EGMs, beer garden, 20 motel accommodation rooms and a drive-through bottleshop. It also keeps one detached bottleshop.
A syndicate led by Sydney-based Gallagher Hotels bought the leasehold interest in 2018 for $6 million from Jaz Mooney, marking the Sydney-based hotelier’s first operation in Queensland.
Gallagher led a multi-million-dollar renovation completed in 2022, reportedly finding uplift across all departments.
In September last year he listed the business, remarking that his first foray into the Queensland pub market had “been a rewarding one” but that the syndicate was eager to “crystallise the cash flow”.
The operation is under a lease expiring 2026, with two further 15-year options, making final expiry in 2056. It offers growth potential in approval for an additional five gaming machines, and opportunity to open and operate more of its three permissible detached bottleshops, enjoying limited comparable competition and high boundaries to entry.
Amid the field of interested parties, the buyer is understood to be Nathan Dawes, who already operates a pub in northern NSW. PubTIC was unable to make contact with Dawes prior to publication.
The sale was through JLL Hotels’ Tom Gleeson, who reports competition was strong.
“Rarely are top 30 gaming hotels available within the SEQ market, and the interest reflected the finite nature of the offering.”
