Kelly & Co Hotels have furthered their strategic portfolio consolidation with the sale of the Centennial Hotel in Gulgong to a pair of newcomer siblings.
Situated on a prominent corner site of 1,345sqm with excellent street frontage, the pub known by locals as ‘The Cenny’ was built in 1872. The full service operation provides single bar operation, bistro, and seven ensuited accommodation rooms, as well as a detached manager’s residence, suitable for housing staff or additional guest space, with parking on-site.
The sale includes six EGM entitlements, which find state ranking of #3 out of 42 pubs in NSW with six machines, and opportunity in an approved DA to refurbish the room, and threshold for a further two machines.
Gulgong is a 19th-century gold rush town with local population of around 3k, found roughly 300 kilometres north-west of Sydney, or thirty north of Mudgee. It has retained much of its historic charm and original 1800s façades.
Early 2022 the Brown family sold the freehold going concern of their Post Office Hotel in town. Rodney ‘Ned’ Kelly bought the Cenny in early 2020, right before the pandemic struck, but transactions in the region are generally few and far between.
Keeping it true to its roots, armed with bush pub essentials including rabbit traps and a mounted boar head, it came to market in September.
“It’s a cracking little Aussie Pub, with character coming out of its ears and some of the best locals you’d hope to meet,” Kelly says.
The freehold going concern of the Cenny has now been purchased by new market entrants, the O’Brien family, led by brother and sister Deb and Glen O’Brien, making a “strategic acquisition” that complements their existing assets in the region.
The sale was brokered by JLL Hotels’ Greg Jeloudev and Edward Browne, through a competitive on-market EOI process that reportedly drew attention from the gamut of buyers, including existing groups, owner-operators and new market entrants.
“The Cenny unsurprisingly attracted interest from a wide breadth of purchasers due to the excellent trade and underlying asset features of the hotel,” says Jeloudev.
“As debt serviceability and cash flow continue to be at the forefront of the 2023 pub investment landscape, the venue easily satisfies many of the stringent criteria required in the current lending sphere.”
