Local identity and horseracing enthusiast Bill Hilton has sold his twice-built and long-run Quakers Inn for $24 million.
Hilton built the large-format Quakers Inn back in 1991, with then business partner Nick Peters.
Peters was the face of Peters Meats, and held other hotel interests, going on to sell El Rancho, now The Ranch, to ALH at the heady pre-GFC 2006 price of $48 million.
Hilton later acquired Peters’ share, and has operated the Hills district pub for 27 years. In 2009 he rebuilt it following a devasting fire.
It counts a public, lounge and bistro bars, large bistro, bottleshop, gaming room with 30 EGMs, entertainment facilities and huge carpark, on a big 6,820sqm site opposite Quakers Hill train station. Currently #244 on the L&G list of gaming venues, it has slipped a dozen places in the past year.
The Hilton family looking to “put the reins down”, it’s understood The Quakers has sold for $24 million, reflecting a solid 8.5 per cent return for the unreported buyer.
The off-market deal was negotiated by JLL Hotels’ national director, John Musca, who says the sale price is an obvious sign of the times.
“Presently fundamental commercial property supply and demand economics apply where asset availability is scarce and liquidity events ubiquitous, which is magnified for hotel investments where growth in trading catchments and unique barriers to competition exist.”
Around 40 kilometres out of the Sydney CBD, Quakers Hill is amongst the precincts benefitting from population and infrastructure growth to the north-west and Hills district.
The suburb has enjoyed a four per cent increase in residents since 2012, with a median age of 33.1 years, and is seeing an increase in DAs that bodes well for a new operator and revised positioning for the pub.
“The area is experiencing a significant development phase, which will bring with it opportunities for the incoming purchaser to reorient the business across all departments to cater for a changing and intensifying local community,” says Musca.
