The ASX-listed Hotel Property Investments (ASX:HPI) and Australian Venue Co (AVC) have sold the Lord Stanley Hotel in East Brisbane to Queensland faithfuls the Hakfoort Group.
The re-stapled freehold going concern of the Lord, on circa 5,500 sqm, incorporating public bar, gaming with 40 machines, function space and beer garden, has reportedly sold for a combined $20 million.
Sale of the asset represents a premium for HPI, at a reported 4.62 per cent yield for the passive freehold.
AVC has been spending millions sprucing and repositioning many of its Queensland venues, to optimise their trading opportunities in evolving markets. But faced with a big-ticket makeover at the Lord, which it inherited as part of the Coles Spirit Hotels portfolio, the group opted to agree to exit the lease and re-deploy capital.
“We always work with our landlord partners where there is an opportunity to maximise the value of the property and business,” explained AVC CEO Paul Waterson.
“On some occasions that will mean selling non-core assets.”
A significant amount of the pub’s footprint is said to be underutilised, and located within five kilometres of the Brisbane CBD and only 1.5 from the Gabba, it lends itself to re-positioning in the lead up to the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games.
Hakfoort Group, founded by the late Albert (Sr) Hakfoort and wife Dianne Hakfoort, has its foundations in Queensland landmark Mount Isa. Albert Jr and his mother continue a reputation for breathing new life into hotels. The stable already counts several pubs in Toowoomba, one in Bowen, and the Tingalpa Hotel in Brisbane’s east.
In March of this year the family sold its famous, long-held RedBrick hotel in Woolloongabba.
Albert believes pub values in Queensland will keep rising, even under the pressure of rising interest rates.
The off-market deal was managed by JLL Hotels’ Tom Gleeson, who echoes Hakfoort’s thinking.
“The Lord Stanley Hotel sale adds weight to the significant list of hotel transactions for 2022 thus far and provides both quantitative and qualitative evidence of the unfulfilled demand for freehold going concern hotels within Queensland.”
