The acquisitive Roche Group has struck again, taking Uralla’s Thunderbolt Inn from the Moore family.
Established 1909, the Thunderbolt – aka The Bottom Pub – is a stately, two-storey Federation structure with ornate lacework adorning verandas on two street fronts. It provides public bar and TAB, gaming room with nine EGMs, commercial kitchen and bistro, and pub-style accommodation rooms upstairs.
Title on the asset included around 6,000sqm of surplus land with redevelopment or subdivision opportunities (STCA).
Uralla is a thriving rural economy and home to over 6,000 people, on the New England Highway between regional hubs Tamworth and Armidale. It boasts high-value agricultural enterprises and consistent tourism appeal, courtesy of a strong arts and cultural scene and quality dining and hospitality offerings.
Vendor for the sale was long-time publican Warren Moore, principle of Moore’s Investments, which also owns the Mooball Hotel, near Byron Bay.
Taking the hotel for a sale price in excess of $3 million is the Roche Group, which holds significant agricultural and hospitality assets in the region, including Harrigan’s Irish Pubs at both Harrington and Pokolbin, and the Royal Hotel Armidale, purchased earlier this month.
Roche Group is headed by Bill and Imelda Roche, who made billions in the 80s through their company Nutrimetics, before divesting and diversifying into property and development, creating projects such as the massive 300+-Ha Cameron Park housing estate, in west Newcastle.
The Thunderbolt is currently tenanted, on an expired lease, and the hospitality arm of the Roche Group will realise another stake in New England and take control of the operation in the near future.
“Uralla has outperformed many of the other towns in the region in the past ten years,” notes HTL Property’s Xavier Plunkett, who managed the transaction in conjunction with Nick Tinning of Chris Tinning and Co.
“The Thunderbolt is a strategic asset that fits well with the Roche Group’s wider regional hotel strategy.”
