Nick Quinn and partners have made up for lost assets, buying the Tourist Hotel in Queanbeyan, representing the first hotel sold in the precinct in a decade.
Established in 1932, the handsome Art Deco pub occupies a 1,928sqm lot on Monaro Street beside a pedestrian thoroughfare to an adjacent 200-space council car park.
The Tourist features public bar, bistro, beer garden, gaming room with 16 GMEs, under a 3am liquor licence (Monday to Saturday), and 18 first floor accommodation rooms plus a manager’s unit.
Queanbeyan is a particularly desirable pub locality due to its large population and comparatively low number of pubs, and proximity to Canberra, where there is no gaming. Its residents boast one of the highest incomes per capita in the country, courtesy of the large component of government sector employment.
Hotels have long been long-held, and the last to sell was in 2013, when the Royal Hotel was bought for around $8 million.
It’s reported Quinn & Co have purchased the Tourist freehold going concern for approximately $15 million, from developer Steve Bartlett.
The sale adds another to the regional portfolio, which has recently come to include the Thomas Blamey in March, and Manning River Hotel in June.
And it offsets the record-breaking sale of the Windsor Castle, just bought by the investor-backed Harvest Hotels for $51 million.
The new owners report there are plans afoot for the Tourist, with an onsite builder meeting this week.
As with all acquisitions, they intend to invest some capex in the hope of capitalising on upside where it can be found.
The Queanbeyan sale was managed off-market by HTL Property’s Blake Edwards and Dan Dragicevich, who report there was no shortage of takers.
“We wholly expected a strong response from the sale process,” says Edwards.
“Buyer activity remains strong for premium assets.”
