Paddington’s famous Unicorn Hotel has been sold as a restapled freehold going concern to the Feros’ JDA Hotels.
Commonly known as ‘Fringe Bar’, the Unicorn is famed for its Monday night comedy acts and eastern suburbs socialite crowd, being located on Oxford Street, amid the high fashion retailers of Glenmore Road and a conga line of high end redevelopment projects.
Investor George Kazzi bought the freehold in 2020, adding to his collection of Sydney pubs that includes the Forrester’s Hotel in Surry Hills and Lord Gladstone in Chippendale.
In recent years the Unicorn has been operated by the Mary’s Burgers team. Earlier this year they joined Kazzi to offer up both the business and title together for the first time in over 15 years.
Taking up the offer is JDA Hotels, led by brothers John and Dean Feros, adding to their stable across NSW and Queensland that includes the General Gordon, Padstow Park Hotel, Charlie Chans, Mermaid Beach Tavern and Gold Coast Tavern.
“JDA’ s excited to enter into the vibrant inner east pub market with the unicorn hotel – especially with such iconic heritage as the Fringe Bar,” John Feros told PubTIC.
Sources say JDA has agreed to a sale price of around $10 million, when the transaction settles later this year.
The sale campaign was managed by JLL Hotels’ Ben McDonald and Kate MacDonald in conjunction with IB Property’s Steffan Ippolito, who report the eastern suburbs institution attracted “a wave” of hospitality operators.
“There was certainly a lot of fond memories rehashed during the sale process from operators around the country,” offered MacDonald. “It was great to see.”
