Brad Solman has executed his plan for early retirement, divesting the freehold going concern of Singleton’s grand old Club House Hotel.
The two-level brick pub on main road John Street offers a welcoming public bar, bistro, beer garden, on-site parking and thriving drive-through bottleshop, with a manager’s residence on the first floor.
It was bought in 2016 by Brad Solman, who had long been the kind of Aussie that dreams of one day owning his own pub.
Turning the ripe not-so-old age of 60 last year, and not wanting to work “much past that”, he executed a refresh on the old girl, installing new carpet, furnishings and bar, and a coat of paint, before listing it for sale in March.
“I had a plan to go three years and retire … it turned out to be three years and four months, but who’s counting,” offers Solman, who advises “everyone calls me Sol”.
“This is a tick off the bucket list.”
The campaign through Manenti Quinlan director Leonard Bongiovanni and Moore & Moore R/E touted a “Great opportunity for a hands-on operator” with almost $35k weekly revenue, $26k coming from the bottleshop.
It has resulted in a newcomer to the game, for the asking price of $550,000.
“The purchaser is in the liquor industry, however it’s their first venture into pubs,” reports Bongiovanni.
Happy to see a another virgin operator into his Club, Sol is looking to kick back and spend more time with family, such as his parents and parents-in-law, who live in town.
“We’ll spend a bit more time with them, and the children and the grandchildren. After a few months we might do a trip around Australia,” he suggests.
A question as to whether the Solmans might join the ranks of grey nomads traversing the country in a Jayco, received a prompt ‘no’.
“It won’t be in a caravan. I did mention that to the wife once, said we’d be able to pull over and I have a beer and a nap, and she said soon as I did she’d disconnect and drive off and leave me. So I never brought that up again.
“She says she don’t mind living under the stars, so long as they’re five-stars.”
