The Nelson Meers group has set a new record for an Australian pub sale, putting up a reported $160 million for the massive Crossroads Hotel of Casula.
Occupying a 1.28-Ha site at the junction of the Hume Highway and Camden Valley Way in Casula, 34 kilometres west of Sydney, the Crossroads is a virtual gateway between Sydney and the booming south-west. Its location is set to benefit greatly from the new Western Sydney airport, at Badgerys Creek.
The top-performing pub offers an expansive array of foodservice and function spaces, atop multiple bars, 15 accommodation rooms, and a Top10 gaming operation with 30 machines.
“This is a key strategic acquisition for our company, with the hotel’s highly successful food and beverage model serving over 4,000 dining experiences each week,” says Group CEO Simon Meers, son to Nelson Meers, who runs the pub operation.
“We are very excited to continue to serve this growing, vibrant and broad community as we look to expand this type of high-quality offering across our hotel network.”
The Crossroads gained unwanted attention last year as one of the sites dubbed a COVID-19 outbreak hotspot, shortly before the state went into lockdown for the second time.
Having rebounded in a big way, the sale process generated plenty of competition amongst buyers, and the price is believed to represent a sub-six per cent yield on current revenues.
It has been sold by former property veteran Rob Macdonald – blowing away the previous record sale price for a pub, when MA Financial (Moelis) bought Byron Bay’s Beach Hotel from Impact Investment Group in early 2020 for close to $104 million.
Nelson Meers AO was Lord Mayor of Sydney from 1978-80, and with his wife, Carole, has become known for philanthropic work, notably via the Meers Foundation, established to support the arts.
But he has also become a major force in the pub industry, seen in purchase of the Belmore Hotel for $50 million in late 2019, from Monarch, and the Hurstville Ritz Hotel for $45 million in late 2017, from former Newtown Jets front rower Steve Bowden.
The Crossroads deal was brokered by HTL Property’s Andrew Jolliffe and Dan Dragicevich, backing up deals on MA Financial also buying Byron’s Hotel Brunswick for $68 million from David Gyngell and Delvene Cornell, Solotel buying the Carousel Inn for $65 million, and the Stanford family’s sale of the Vineyard Hotel for $70 million – all in late 2021.
Jolliffe says the Crossroads Hotel sale “recalibrates values” across the entire hotel landscape, “and promotes a momentum that will see up to $1bn worth of sales concluded in the last quarter of this financial year alone”.
