The Feros’ JDA Hotels has secured the leasehold interest of the coveted Mountbatten Hotel in Haymarket for $7.5 million.
The Mountbatten is one of the true ‘locals’ of Sydney’s major boulevard, George Street, with an office workers’ happy hour from four ‘til six each weekday. It holds a 3am liquor licence and 25 gaming machines, with enviable three-hour weekend gaming shutdown.
In the recent Liquor & Gaming ranking of NSW venues the hotel stands at #490, but it had previously ranked consistently in the Top200 prior to the disruption caused to George Street during construction of the light rail.
It has been operated for over 20 years by Carolyn Kelly’s Surfside Hotels, which still holds a strong presence in the city’s south at the Market City Tavern, Star Hotel and Surry Hills Hotel.
“The Mountbatten has been a great venue for Surfside Hotel and complemented our portfolio of southern CBD assets,” says Kelly.
“As such, it gives me great comfort to know that another group so heavily invested already within the precinct are taking the keys, and will no doubt continue to serve the local community well.”
JDA already count the nearby Great Southern Bar and Charlie Chans Hotel, as well as owning and operating five further pubs across Sydney and two on the Gold Coast.
Mountbatten closely follows the group’s recent $30 million purchase of Sydenham’s General Gordon Hotel. Both deals were managed by HTL Property, which notes the pace of the market in 2021 in its already finalising 20 sales for the year, with more slated to follow.
“The Chinatown precinct is notoriously tightly held, and consequently very keenly sought after by the market for its intrinsic fundamentals,” offers HTL’s Dan Dragicevich, who brokered Mountbatten with colleague Sam Handy.
“We were inundated with enquiries regarding Mountbatten, and the result is testament to Surfside’s successful asset stewardship.”
