The Stanford family has continued its divestment run with another massive transaction, selling the Carousel Inn of Rooty Hill to Bruce Solomon’s Solotel Group.
After sale of Little Big House in May and of Green Park Hotel last November, purchase of the super-large-format pub, on 17,000sqm, represents Solotel’s first new property in some time and first step into one of Sydney’s major growth regions.
“We’re excited by the opportunity the Carousel Inn brings to Solotel and would like to thank the Stanford family for providing this opportunity and the team at HTL Property for running a seamless sales process,” said Elliot Solomon, Solotel CEO.
“We look forward to engaging with the community to better understand how we can take the venue into the future. This purchase is an important first step into the north-west – a key growth corridor for Sydney – as we look to continue to expand our diverse portfolio of pubs, bars and restaurants across Sydney.”
Carousel Inn is on a corner of arterial Woodstock Ave, offering public bar, bistro, gaming room with 30 machines, function space, bottleshop, parking for 250 cars, and a 3am licence. It is ranked Top200 on the Liquor & Gaming list of NSW pubs, but has been ranked in the Top50.
It was put to market mid-October, looking to offers north of $50 million, and has now reportedly sold for circa $64 million.
Sale of the Carousel follows that of the family’s Vineyard Hotel, earlier in October, for $70 million.
The Stanfords have worked the pub sector for more than four decades, and the portfolio divestment strategy will conclude with sale of its final asset, the Riverstone Hotel, “before the end of the year” according to Glen Stanford.
The Carousel was sold through a national on-market campaign managed by HTL’s Dan Dragicevich and Andrew Jolliffe, who also sold the Vineyard, and suggest the rules have been rewritten on the most in-demand assets.
“Genuine AAA grade large-format hospitality opportunities such as the Carousel Inn are increasingly scarce in metropolitan Sydney, and the price and yield achieved bears testimony to this fact,” says Dragicevich.
“Of the ten most recent comparable sales – by location and gaming segment – the first seven represent an average cap rate of 6.7 per cent, while the most recent three indicate an average cap rate of less than five per cent.
“This keenly illustrates both appetite and product rarity.”
Despite the challenged trading conditions, Australia saw national pub sales in FY21 exceeding $1.5bn, and the evidence is strong for this to repeat or even increase.
“The sale of several hundred million worth of Sydney hotel assets in the past five weeks is a meaningful vector for the health of the asset class nationally,” suggests Jolliffe, HTL MD.
