Property guru Glenn Piper has sealed the deal on Andrew Lazarus’ magnificent Beach Hotel at Merewether, in another new record for the Newcastle region.
The large-format heritage-listed pub occupies a 1,850sqm site just three kilometres from the Newcastle CBD, with panoramic views of Merewether Beach – the home to Australia’s epic surf carnival, Surfest Newcastle.
A pub has been on the site since the late 1890s, although the current multi-level building, with three street frontages, was built around 1939. It boasts a legendary beer garden and reputation on par with the likes of Byron’s own Beach Hotel, Manly’s The Steyne and Cronulla’s Northies.
Lazarus bought the freehold going concern in late 2019 and set about securing a DA for a significant overhaul of the property, moving live music to the underused first floor, expanding on a terrace to optimise coastal views, increasing capacity, and extending the regular trading hours to what the licence allowed.
The location and area stand to benefit broadly from the ongoing $8.5bn government and private sector investment into Newcastle.
With his sights set on other projects closer to Sydney, in February Lazarus listed the DA-ready asset through an on-market EOI campaign, likely to fetch around $40 million.
It has now sold to highly regarded investor Glenn Piper, who is said to be eager to proceed with the redevelopment.
Piper has partnered with a small syndicate of investors – many of whom are locals – and already holds a strong connection with the place.
“Merewether Beach Hotel is a truly magnificent property, with one of the best pub views in the country,” he explains.
“It has been part of the community since the 1880s, so I feel humbled and excited by this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take it on.
“I have spent a lot of time in the area over the years. As a kid, I would always travel up on the weekend to surf with my dad and mates at Merewether.
“My family, who live in Newcastle, were actually the ones who told me the pub was on the market. They will be coming on board as investors, which makes the sale even more special.”
Since buying the iconic Harbord Beach Hotel in early 2020, and reopening it after a major makeover early 2021, Piper doubled down on the northern beaches with purchase of the leasehold of Q Station, on Manly’s North Head.
He is paving the way for a new real estate-focused pub group, and stands well positioned to optimise another coastal gem in The Beach.
“Both pubs share a wonderful affinity with the surf; the salty sea air is part of their DNA.
“That’s exactly what we wanted to capture at Harbord and certainly what we’ll celebrate at Merewether, the home of Australia’s largest surf carnival.”
Trumping the previous record for a Newcastle pub, set only mid-April in Oscars’ purchase of the Malouf’s Caves Beach Hotel, the cache of Merewether’s Beach is arguably greater than most if not all the big-ticket coastal sales seen in the past two years.
“The Beach Hotel is more than just a pub to Novocastrians … a truly local keepsake, where the beachfront and scalable fundamentals are rare and irreplaceable,” suggests HTL Property’s Dan Dragicevich, who brokered the deal with colleague Andrew Jolliffe.
“The new DA will elevate this generational property into the sphere of similar Sydney-based hospitality operations, such as the Watson’s Bay Hotel and Coogee Pavilion, further cementing Newcastle’s renaissance as a genuine capital city.”
