The fabled Robin Hood Hotel has come to market in Sydney’s east, heralding an end to three generations of family ownership.
Overlooking the Charing Cross intersection – gateway to the Bronte retail precinct and some of Sydney’s most affluent suburbs – the Robin was built in 1938 by Tooth & Co.
A community-minded pub, it exudes live music and entertainment, holding a prized 3am licence.
In 2021 an extensive $8 million renovation and overhaul resulted in a larger trading footprint and patron capacity (451), across two levels, with activation of Lorraine’s bistro on the first floor, also uniquely approved for extended trading hours, and recent recipient of an Australian Good Food Guide Chefs Hat.
But the revamp was careful to not become a ‘niche’ offering, continuing to embrace all the “good things that make a pub a pub”, with plenty of beers and a strong pub menu, and lots of sport on big screens. The entire food offering, including the French bistro upstairs and a delivery business called Wings and Burgers, are driven by Robin’s Michelin star-trained chef.
It has long been the pride and joy of the Whitten family, who have held the deeds for the past 44 years and feel some in the eastern suburbs have forgotten what a real pub should be.
“I wanted to really keep the heritage of the building, and make sure we focused on doing the pub thing well,” says Daniel Whitten, who is operator and owner with his parents and brother.
Robin holds 21 gaming machines, but gaming accounts for the smallest slice of its pie. Upside for a potential buyer is seen more to be in ramping up the bistro, currently only open four nights per week, in redeveloping the bottleshop, and the options that present with the accompanying additional site.
Included in the sale and landholding of 1,757sqm is a lot of 567sqm, part of the Charing Cross area, that is in need of redevelopment. The favourable zoning and planning, particularly the proposed Masterplan concept to revitalise the precinct, provides future mixed-use redevelopment potential (STCA).
Based in Sydney, the Whitten family also hold other investments, mostly in property. They are nearing the end of a short lease at the Gunnedah Hotel, having sold the freehold last year, and Daniel is still proprietor of the Tamworth Hotel, with a business partner.
After four and a half decades, as the business thrives, the Whittens pose that they want to capitalise on a strong market, particularly as nothing comparable has been sold in the eastern suburbs in years, but also see it as time to recycle the equity into more projects.
“We think it’s a great opportunity for the next bloke to have a go,” says Daniel. “And it’s an opportune time to take the good work we’ve done and roll it into the next asset and set of investments.”
He suggests he would grab another pub “tomorrow” if the right opportunity presented, but the family is not desperate to sell and if the right buyer doesn’t come along he will “just continue what I’m doing. And I love what I do”.
Few privately owned pub assets remain in Sydney’s east, and sale of the Robin Hood represents the first significant pub publicly offered to market for half a decade.
The prime landholding is seen to “future-proof” the asset, offering a variety of redevelopment options. The business reports a diverse mixture of cashflows and expected to garner national interest from operators, and with the freehold sites the sale is expected to generate price around $60 million.
The sale process is being managed by HTL Property’s Andrew Jolliffe, Dan Dragicevich and Sam Handy, who note the “notoriously” tightly held nature of eastern suburbs pubs.
The Robin Hood Hotel freehold going concern and surplus land are being sold via Expression of Interest, closing Wednesday, 3 May.
