Taphouse Group has sold its landmark Port Macquarie pub to an established hotelier for what is thought to be a record price for the area.
Known as The Macca, the heritage-listed Port Macquarie Hotel was established in 1939, making it the area’s most longstanding pub.
Occupying a generous 2,878sqm site it offers public bar, bistro, gaming lounge with 30 machines, and 20 accommodation rooms upstairs doing historically strong business, plus a drive-through bottleshop.
It also incorporates the Town Green, on the same title, which is leased as a restaurant and operates under a separate licence.
The broad revenue streams generated report annual revenues north of $13 million.
Matsal Investments is an arm of formerly listed parent company Salmat, built by Philip Salter and Peter Mattick. Salmat purchased the freehold of the Macca late 2010 for $16 million from Redcape, and a few years later, mid-2015 subsidiary Taphouse Group acquired the leasehold on the pub from Redcape.
Taphouse subsequently undertook a $3.5 million makeover of the Hotel, looking to the area’s increasing infrastructure and demand drivers, bringing the airport, hospital, university, tourism, and large-scale residential communities, such as Sovereign Hills, heralding 2,500 new dwellings and a 25,000sqm town centre.
The region has gone on to attract big name coastal investors, as seen in the Laundy-Flower partnership paying $25 million in March for Port Macquarie’s Mercure Central Hotel.
When Taphouse put The Macca and Port Macquarie partner venue Tacking Point Tavern to market in April, pundits suggested a combined sale price of $100 million.
Port Macquarie Hotel has now sold to an undisclosed buyer – but one seemingly ready to take a big plunge into the Port, meeting market guidance at a figure of $57 million, which would make it a record for a pub in the region.
Salmat previously sold its Coolangatta Sands Hotel, for $15 million, in 2019. The sale process on the Tacking Point Tavern continues, also through HTL Property’s Andrew Jolliffe, Dan Dragicevich and Sam Handy.
“Interest in our public EOI process last month drew activity from a national investor landscape, and highlighted the magnetism of multi-revenue faceted hotels in key geographical centres along Australia’s East Coast,” offered Handy on sale of The Macca.
