Team Laundy has divested the big Settler’s Tavern in West Gosford to returning industry player Damian Kelly.
Arthur Laundy AO, along with his daughter and son-in-law Justine and Nick Tindall, bought the large-format pub early 2016 from the Bernie family. It joined their other Central Coast hotels, Long Jetty, Chittaway Bay and Bateau Bay.
In the past decade they have significantly upgraded operations, managing an efficiently laid out Tavern providing a public bar, bistro, gaming room with 20 gaming machines and substantial on-site parking, across a 5,021sqm commercial property. It also benefits from a licence for 3am trading.
The vendors are currently executing major renovations and “pushing hard” at The Oaks Hotel, bought in 2018, and at Hotel Illawong at Evans Head, purchased in 2021, and Tindall says this activity was the motivator to “pull up stumps” at West Gosford.
“All available capital is going into these works and the sale of Settler’s will give us a bit of security, and capital reserves,” he explains. “It’s easier to be a bit liquid.”
Also holding the role of group operations manager at Laundy Hotels, Tindall predicts there will be plenty of activity in the pub sector in the next six months, seeing “big numbers … major numbers”.
This forecast will likely encompass the thriving Central Coast, which is experiencing rapid population growth and unprecedented Government spending, including the $1 billion upgrade of the rail line from Sydney.
Settler’s is proximate to the proposed Racecourse Road development, under consideration by the NSW Planning Department, slated to bring a $115 million mixed-use development incorporating a 196-room motel.
The Tavern also enjoys an exclusive trading catchment in West Gosford and surrounding suburbs, atop a very low hotels per capita ratio in the wider LGA.
Experienced hotel investor Damian Kelly returns to the industry after a two-year hiatus, resuming his penchant for strategic assets through acquisition of Settler’s for circa $18.5 million, according to sources.
The transaction exchanged last week, following a sale campaign by HTL Property’s Dan Dragicevich and Blake Edwards.
“Excellent trading conditions right across NSW are continuing to exemplify the sector’s attractive investment fundamentals,” says Dragicevich.
“This is highlighted by the Settler’s transaction, between clearly an industry stalwart in the Laundy family and an experienced hotel investor buying back into the market.”
