Grafton’s Jacaranda Hotel has been listed for sale by the long-serving Stokes family, who have held it for over five decades.
The Jacaranda is a classic two-storey timber structure on a generous 2,037sqm corner lot in the heart of the Grafton CBD, opposite the Coles-anchored Grafton Food Emporium shopping centre.
It first opened in 1876 as the Willow Tree Hotel, under which it traded for over half a century, until the Jacaranda moniker was adopted in 1939.
The pub offers two bars with central operation, kitchen and dining spaces and a beer garden, as well as 11 accommodation rooms and a manager’s quarters. It is one of the only pubs in Grafton without a gaming operation, which draws a loyal following.
Freehold owners John and Janet Stokes are stalwarts of the hotel industry and have grown the Jacaranda legend over the past 56 years.
They ran it themselves for a long time, but for the past decade or so it has been under lease, most recently to Craig and Narelle Want. The lease expired at the end of March, and the tenants threw a two-day leaving party.
Not wishing to go through the process of finding new tenants, the Stokes’ determined it was time to exit and put it to market.
It is being sold as a freehold vacant possession, and trading figures are not available.
The substantial land holding is zoned B3 Commercial Core and R1 General Residential, with unutilised space beside the hotel, offering further development opportunity.
Comparable assets suggest sale price north of $1 million.
The Stokes family engaged Deane Moore, of Moore & Moore Real Estate, who partnered with local agent Derek Morgan of Dougherty Property to market the property, which may find appeal in alternate use beyond the pub.
“We’ve already had quite a bit of interest,” reports Moore.
“To work with the Stokes’ and sell this asset is a privilege.”
The vacant freehold of the Jacaranda Hotel Grafton is being sold via Expressions of Interest.
