After 22 years of continuous ownership, Marty Short and family have determined it’s time to sell their well-known Seabreeze Beach Hotel and separate commercial properties, in picturesque South West Rocks.
The large-format Hotel comprises public bar and wagering, dining service, gaming room with 22 machines, 29 accommodation rooms in use, and a popular drive-through bottleshop.
The pub occupies a prominent 3,816sqm land holding in a prime position in the CBD, with another two buildings at the rear, representing another 1,450sqm. The pub site includes three tenanted retail shops, contributing passive income.
Demand in coastal regions such as South West Rocks has been bolstered by the ‘sea-changers’ and many that looked to leave the big cities in the wake of the COVID pandemic.
The Seabreeze generates weekly revenue of circa $225k, across multiple streams, but while the 29 operational rooms enjoy full occupancy during the warmer months and high patronage in off-season, there are more rooms, not in use, which could be brought online.
W.Short Hotel Group (WSHG) secured development approval, which comes with the sale, looking to optimise the significant land holding with construction of a mixed-use building with multiple levels of retail and 32 apartments.
After a subdued start to the year, the transaction landscape is seeing increased activity and interest is anticipated from sophisticated funds, beyond the NSW-based or interstate groups.
Coastal landmarks invariably rise to the top of the market, seen in Iris’ top-dollar purchase of The Steyne in Manly, Moelis snapping up Brunswick Heads, and last year the Taphouse divesting in Port Macquarie, as a Laundy Flower partnership bought the nearby Mercure Hotel for $47 million.
The Seabreeze is likely find a sale price of $30-40 million.
“This asset enjoys very similar characteristics in terms of both the irreplaceable combination of beachside nature and scale,” says HTL Property’s Dan Dragicevich, marketing the property with colleague Andrew Jolliffe.
Agents bode that PAG’s $1.4 billion investment in AVC is a “positive talisman” for the industry, attracting new investor capital as the asset class outperforms most other commercial property investments.
The freehold going concern of the Seabreeze Hotel and its commercial properties is being sold via Expressions of Interest, closing Monday, 9 October.
