Pub king Arthur Laundy has picked up the sprawling Hunts Hotel in Casula, less than six months after the record-setting sale in the precinct of the Crossroads Hotel.
Hunts is located directly opposite the big Crossroads, which sold to Nelson Meers in April for a reported $160 million.
The massive 21,420sqm Hunts site on Camden Valley Road offers 140 accommodation rooms, cocktail bar, conference facilities, a ballroom, tennis courts and restaurants, but no gaming.
After the passing of the principal of Hunts earlier this year, other Hunt family members have been operating the business, and put word out the property was available as a vacant possession.
Laundy Hotels has paid over $42 million for the title, brokered through JLL Hotels’ Ben McDonald.
It is something of a return to Casula for Arthur, who took on a lease of the Crossroads in 1962 under Tooth & Company, which the big brewer had only opened in the previous two years. It was here the now veteran came to know some of the Hunt family.
While he says he likes the hotel and motel, which enjoys strong turnover through its accommodation at one of the true crossroads of western Sydney, and used to boast a significant foodservice element, Laundy says of its development potential “not so much”.
After decades in the game, in recent years Laundy has found new energies in creating ground-up new pubs in some of Sydney’s fastest-growing areas, such as the $45 million build at the Marsden Hotel Brewery.
But while these greenfield developments can be designed from the beginning to meet the demands of the site, such a build would likely be cost-prohibitive at Hunts.
“There’s a lot of things we can do, but at this stage we’re undecided,” he says.
“Suffice to say there are a lot of irons in the fire.”
