Non-hotelier developers have listed the title of the Kalkallo Hotel in the Victorian growth corridor north of Melbourne, presenting a rare opportunity in the state’s tightly held property market.
The two-level pub resides on the highly visible and accessible Yaldwin Street corner of the Hume Highway in the City of Hume LGA, seeing daily traffic of more than 60k vehicles and proximate to major demand generators.
It provides front bar/sports bar, commercial kitchen and dining area, function room, courtyard beer garden, walk-up bottleshop and off-street parking, with a general liquor licence allowing trade up to 1am. Upstairs are pub-style accommodation rooms, in original condition.
The freehold title has been leased to and operated by the same local family for over 25 years, but their tenure ends June 2027, as they head into retirement.
All plant and equipment associated with operating the hotel will remain with the freehold title, and while it currently has no gaming it is permitted to have 18 machines.
In 2021 freehold owners of more than 50 years put the property to market, with the same tenant, along with combined land over several titles.
The successful buyer was Bricks Property, which is behind significant developments in multiple locations around the state. Bricks have retained land to the rear of the hotel where they intend to build commercial property, and they negotiated an early exit for the tenant, bringing it forward to mid-2027.
The vendors say they are not interested in running pubs and have sent the Kalkallo back to market, on its site of 2,040sqm.
Indicative concept plans were drafted for a fresh structure, to be a new tavern with a drive-through bottleshop.
Victoria’s Northern Growth Corridor is witnessing significant expansion, forecast to become home to 600k residents in the coming decades. Complementing the residential boom are major projects such as Cloverton Community, being developed by Stockland, and MAB Corporation’s Merrifield Estate – said to be Victoria’s largest masterplanned activity centre – delivering major multinational tenants on the hotel’s doorstep.
Found 30 kilometres north of the Melbourne CBD and 15 mins from the International Airport, Kalkallo is central to the growth corridor, anticipating over 300,000 residents in the coming decade.
Victoria is buoyant on a general revival, having shaken the post-pandemic shackles and returned to welcoming big crowds and major events, as seen in the 100k people who packed the MCG over the weekend for the juggernaut launch of the NFL season.
An incoming purchaser at Kalkallo would enjoy the options to trade the soon-vacant hotel, or to invest capital and refurbish or completely reposition the popular watering hole.
The entry level pub, estimated to be worth circa $3 million, is being sold via Expressions of Interest closing Wednesday, 7 October through Savills ANZ’s Mathew George, who reiterates the lack of freeholds and says this one is “ripe for repositioning”.
“Melbourne is much more fragmented than the comparable pub markets in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide,” he notes.
“Most of the pub freeholds in Victoria are held by passive investors, as opposed to operating hoteliers and pub groups, like in the other states.”
