Harvest Hotels has consummated its new investment fund with purchase of the big-ticket Jerrabomberra Hotel, in red-hot Queanbeyan.
Known locally as ‘The Jerra” the pub occupies a generous 2,759sqm opposite the Jerrabomberra Village Shopping Mall, providing sports bar, bistro, gaming room with 30 machines, and drive-through bottleshop.
As an asset, the A-grade regional venue possesses the key fundamentals attracting buyers, having an exclusive catchment and being situated in a high foot traffic location, with ample parking, consequently reaping the Harvest sale.
“We’ve been extremely vigilant in making sure we secure properties and businesses that not only align with our strategic plan and can generate a strong return for investors, but that also complement the existing high-quality assets that we have under management,” says group founder and managing director, Chris Cornforth.
The sale was by a local syndicate that had held it since 2010, fetching a price believed to be close to $25 million. It follows purchase of the nearby Tourist Hotel in mid-2022 by Nick Quinn and company for around $15 million, from developer Steve Bartlett.
Harvest Hotels has been similarly exploring prospects in Queanbeyan LGA for a number of years.
“We’ve previously owned and operated pubs in the nearby community of Yass, so are well acquainted with the broader region, and in meeting all our required demographic metrics, Queanbeyan has been a target area of ours for a long time.”
Queanbeyan is on the border of NSW and the ACT, approximately three and a half hours south-west of Sydney.
The Capital’s prohibition on gaming machines in pubs means the surrounding resident population of more than 450k people are serviced by only five NSW licensed hotels.
This becomes the ‘lucky’ 13th venue in the Harvest portfolio, and the first under the newly merged Harvest Pub Fund, which so far holds eight assets – all in desirable, high-growth regions.
It is the latest $20 million-plus regional NSW sale in recent months, following the Shorts selling the Seabreeze Hotel in South West Rocks in November for $32 million, and Redcape offloading the Central Hotel in Shellharbour in September for $25 million.
Sale of the Jerra was through HTL Property’s Dan Dragicevich and Sam Handy, who also transacted the Seabreeze and Central, and pose that trading cornerstones of hotels such as these are key to longevity.
“Harvest Hotels has proven themselves to be astute purchasers over their tenure, and the Jerrabomberra acquisition in Queanbeyan is no different,” notes Dragicevich.
