Rich-listers the Roche family have listed their prized Harrigan’s Tavern and Harrington River Lodge, on the much-coveted NSW mid-north coast.
Operated under management, the properties occupy a combined 18,247 square metres, boasting more than 200 metres of absolute river frontage.
The large tavern offers a public bar, designated TAB, commercial kitchen and bistro, gaming room with 14 PMEs and a spectacular waterfront beer-garden.
On a separate title, the Lodge accommodation comprises 21 well-appointed 4-star units, swimming pool, function room with capacity for over 100 guests and an ultra-luxury three-bedroom owner’s residence.
Together they report $4 million in annual revenues, through bar, food, wagering, accommodation and functions.
There is clear upside for an incoming operator courtesy of the recently upgraded gaming operation, and increasingly popular latent development upside courtesy of the 1.8ha of land.
The Roche Group family business is best known for pharmaceuticals, but over the past two decades it has made major investments into the town of Harrington, around 300 kilometres north of Sydney, bringing the broadacre land development for over 1,200 homes and residences, a golf course and infrastructure.
Bill Roche passed away just a few months ago, aged 87. For the past few years the family’s property interests have been overseen by his son, Dominic, and the family has now brought the Harrington hospitality assets to market, as they sit “slightly outside of their core investment mandate”.
This sales campaign follows in the wake of the year’s two largest coastal pub sales, seeing the Knox Group buy the Port Macquarie Hotel and the Laundy-Flower consortium buy Taphouse Group’s other goldmine, the Tacking Point Hotel.
As such, agents expect buyers “will be particularly attracted” to the coastal town’s proximity to both Sydney and Newcastle, likely to draw established publicans, accommodation providers and high net worth investors.
“We’ve seen an on-going and deliberate buyer appetite for waterfront hospitality assets down the eastern seaboard and consequently there has undoubtedly been an elevated level of capital flow to the NSW north coast,” reports HTL Property’s Andrew Jolliffe, marketing the property in conjunction with colleague Xavier Plunkett.
No price guide has been provided on the sale, but the SMH quoted pundit expectations around $16 million.
“Increasingly, we are seeing traditional publicans being drawn to more diversified income streams and assets with strong accommodation and bottleshop components,” adds Plunkett.
Harrigan’s Tavern and Harrington River Lodge are being sold in one line through an Expressions of Interest campaign, concluding Thursday, 1 December.
