Two years after selling in Maitland, the Murphy brothers are back in the Hunter, buying the freehold going concern of the Imperial Hotel at Singleton from Walker Douglas and Callen Hotels.
Walker Douglas Group (WDG) has held title on a long list of regional hotels, and its Imperial at Singleton has been operated in recent years by Callen Hotels.
Situated on a sizeable 1,000sqm block on the main drag through town, the prominent two-storey pub counts a strong public bar, gaming room with 15 machines, and 12 underutilised accommodation rooms on the first floor.
The Singleton region is entering a mining resurgence, with a renewed focus on sustainability, bringing new sustainable income opportunities for the pub and town, around an hour north-west of Newcastle.
In recognition of its market potential, in July the entities collaborated to put the re-stapled asset to market through Moore & Moore Real Estate’s Deane Moore and CBRE Hotels’ Ben McDonald, looking for sale price “north of $3 million”.
The Murphy family purchased the Belmore Hotel in Maitland in 2003, undertaking major renovations over the years as owner-operators.
In 2017 they reluctantly sold it at peak trade to a first-time publican from Newcastle for around $9 million. For the past two years Josh, Nick and Luke Murphy have continued other interests in property development near Maitland.
But after two years out of the game, the trio has returned by way of Singleton, topping a competitive list of Expressions of Interest to acquire ‘The Impy’ for $3.3 million.
Taking the keys in recent weeks, they have wasted no time and already gutted the hotel rooms for a full makeover, slated to open by early January. Plans will then begin on renovation of more of the historic pub.
The Impy also has the benefit of now being one of only three hotels in the area with gaming, after a string of other local businesses sold off their licences. Being Band 2 the pub is able to expand the gaming footprint, and plans are in mind to better service the market in town.
2019 has seen a continued strong market for pubs in growth regions, and selected thinning of the number of pubs in many towns, in part facilitated by the introduction of NSW laws allowing regional operations to sell gaming entitlements without forfeiture.
“The sale of the Imperial Hotel reinforces the desirability for quality country hotel assets throughout NSW,” notes Deane Moore.
“As they become harder and harder to find, yields are staying tightly compressed, and I envisage 2020 to be another year of hotel sales reaching optimum prices.”
