Hunt Hospitality has a little more Hunter with acquisition of the Imperial Hotel at Maitland, in time for a local get-together.
Built 1851, a block from the Hunter River, the Imperial Hotel was established back when goods were still delivered via small barges and vessels plying the waterway.
In 1994 it became Shenanigans at the Imperial, becoming Maitland’s go-to Irish pub for the next two decades.
When Imperial Hospitality Group bought it in 2017 they executed a major renovation that required overhaul of the building from the inside out, and transformed it into a modern Art Deco establishment.
The work saw it take ‘Best Redeveloped Pub’ and ‘Best Pub Style Accommodation’ at the AHA NSW Awards for Excellence.
Actively looking for a new asset, Stephen Hunt found the right price for IHG and took over yesterday.
Even before the keys were in hand the new owners put out messages on social media through all their local contacts on a ‘Takeaway Community Day’.
The first day brought hundreds of locals for lunch and booked to collect their takeaway dinner, from a menu of classic pub favourites, such as a hand-crumbed schnitty, chips and gravy for $7, or burgers from $6, even full seafood platters – all conveniently packaged to go.
The Hunts are passionate locals; supporters of the Maitland Blacks Rugby Team and Platinum Sponsors of Variety – the Children’s Charity.
What’s more, the Imperial Hotel is actually Stephen’s local, and he and wife Fidelma want to help the community during these times.
“We’ve been doing extra community things at the pubs for the past few weeks,” he says. “It’s good to stay active with locals, it keeps them in the habit of coming to the pub, and also keeps the staff active.
“Food brings us together and although we can’t enjoy it with them just yet, we wanted our patrons to have a little bit of Hunt Hospitality at home.”
Suspecting the disruption would continue a bit longer, Hunt considered their position and decided to “rip into it” and give the punters something. He answered the question of an investor in a recent board meeting with “We’re going to change the ads we were doing, to doing takeaway, and do the best we can to keep our doors open without our doors being open”.
This led to a conversation on the changed messaging with a local radio station, which was so pleased the Group was not cancelling their bookings they gave them more ads.
The Imperial joins the Hunt fleet, being The Kent, The Duke, Seabreeze Hotel, Finnians and the Ocean View Hotel.
The latest asset was brokered through Manenti Quinlan’s Leonard Bongiovanni with Deane Moore of Moore & Moore Real Estate – who also brokered its sale four years’ ago.
“Having transacted the pub to Imperial Hospitality Group, it was an honour for us to again manage its sale to a truly local operator, Stephen Hunt,” offered Bongiovanni.
