Taphouse has passed the baton on its pocket rocket New Victoria Tavern in the burgeoning Sydney industrial precinct and one pub suburb of Wetherill Park.
The New Vic came to market late 2021, citing a lively sports bars and TAB facilities, function facilities, a first-class VIP lounge with 19 EGMs, and onsite parking. Sale included a retail tenancy with flexible lease to a medical practice, providing potential for future footprint expansion.
It had undergone a recent renovation and held Development Consent approved to trade until 4am.
Located within the 650-Ha Smithfield-Wetherill Park Industrial Area – workplace for around 14k employees at 3k businesses – it claims almost exclusive trading catchment throughout Wetherill Park and several surrounding suburbs.
A Top100 Fairfield LGA pub, it is proximate to eight other pubs in the Liquor & Gaming upper echelon.
Marketing literature pronounced the “unheard of” occurrence of pubs of its standing becoming available, and price expectations for the campaign were north of $60 million, set to conclude December 2021.
After some protracted delays to the settlement, it’s understood it has now been sold by vendors Matsal Investments, aka the Taphouse Group, to Nelson Meers for an amount understood to be in line with guidance.
The privately-owned group has been playing out a strategic divestment strategy that this year has seen sale of both its Port Macquarie Hotel in June to Jim Knox, and its Tacking Point Tavern in July to a Laundy-Flower partnership.
The New Vic has now been acquired by an unnamed but reportedly “prominent Sydney investment group” in a sign of continued confidence in the hotel sector, which, underpinned by property, is better placed than most to weather economic ebb and flow.
“The national hotel landscape is not immune to the broad challenges faced by all asset classes from time to time,” notes HTL Property’s Andrew Jolliffe, who negotiated the sale with colleague Dan Dragicevich.
