Leading Victorian pub group Black Rhino is seizing opportunity, snapping up a collection of gaming hotels in metro and regional South Australia, starting with the Newmarket in Port Adelaide.
David Tomsic – owner and managing director of the Black Rhino Hotel Group (BRH) – is executing strategic moves into the State in pursuit of uplift via the “strong growth” predicted in coming years.
He notes the deals are attractive at sub-$5 million for freeholds, as SA enters a new era in gaming courtesy of recent legislation changes, with the cost of entitlements far cheaper than Victoria.
“Our plans are to buy pubs and keep the existing staff on, inject some capital into them, upgrade the product on the floor, and deliver high quality venues back to the patrons and locals,” says Tomsic.
The Newmarket Hotel building was erected in 1879 as a collection of small businesses including a butcher, bootmaker, plumber and printing office, known as the ‘new’ market. By 1880 a proposal came to establish a hotel and a licence was granted March 1890, with space transformed into a bar and seventeen rooms, dubbed the ‘Newmarket Hotel’.
Tomsic says BRH will also be considering the right leases, and hinted of several more additions to be announced in coming weeks.
BRH operations manager John Kemister will be moving to Adelaide with his young family to oversee operations at the group’s new acquisitions. The stable currently counts 20 pubs in Melbourne, with another two coming aboard in the next year.
“I’ve very confident with Adelaide; the market’s changed,” Tomsic told PubTIC.
“This is a new era for us, and we have several other exciting deals to announce in the very near future, both regional and metro.”
The Melbourne hotelier was introduced into the SA market by CBRE’s Mathew George and McGees’ Grant Clark, as the post-COVID landscape ripens.
“Identifying the hotel opportunities on offer in SA, and the lack in Victoria, we were able to convince David and his team to fly over pretty soon after interstate travel and borders reopened,” says George, who bears witness to the levels of appreciation taking place in Victoria.
“In recent months we have seen some of the highest prices and sharpest yields on record being paid for gaming assets – leasehold and freehold,” he says.
“Prices have well and truly surpassed previous levels, fuelled by low cost of debt and rebounding trading results.”
