After a half-century of original ownership, the Masen family is reluctantly parting with its big suburban hotel of Good Intent in Grafton.
In 1957 two Grafton locals, hotelier Reg Hinch and builder Reg Want, built the “Ultra-Modern” Good Intent Hotel in their home town amid much local acclaim, at a lavish cost of £90,000 (more than $2.8 million today).
It boasted an elegant tiled public bar and saloon lounge, dining facilities with seating for 100, a large beer garden between the two wings of the hotel, and 16 bedrooms, including eight self-contained suites.
The pub occupies a generous 3,325sqm block on an arterial road, with ample parking. Today it also offers a gaming room, with 15 EGMs but no smoking solution, in a Band 3 precinct.
Grafton is a community of nearly 19,000 people around halfway between Coffs Harbour and Byron Bay, and split by the Clarence River.
The Good Intent is the only suburban hotel offering in South Grafton, and one of only two pubs in town with gaming. It is also close to the new $788m Clarence Correction Centre, due to be completed in 2020, bringing 600 employees and their families.
In recent times the pub has been operated by Sharon and Rod Masen, since Rod’s father Reg Hinch passed away.
Hoping for a bright continued future for the Good Intent the Masens have listed the freehold going concern as they look to retirement and travel, and the holiday season brings heightened opportunity.
“We were very strategic about the timing of the sale,” notes HTL Property’s Xavier Plunkett, marketing the asset.
“There is limited competing stock on the market and many publicans, who are already thinking forward to 2020, have the spare time to inspect the property during early January.”
Marketing literature reports annual revenue of just over $1 million, with a top-heavy 96 per cent coming from bar and bottleshop, and gaming.
The Hotel shows further potential in its gaming operation, with a clear relocation option for all-smoking, and its lack of modern hardware or CRT. It climbed more than 100 places in NSW rankings to #648 during 2019, following upgrading of six of the 15 machines and installation of TITO.
But a projected shortage of short-stay accommodation in the area will likely present attractive upside in the Good Intent’s existing rooms, as well as its clear potential in foodservice and bringing the food offering back in-house.
The property is expected to attract both established publicans in northern NSW and gaming-centric operators from further afield. The sale is by Private Treaty, with price expectation mid- to high $4 million.
