The Exchange Hotel in Kyogle is being sold by Ashton Waugh’s Watering Hole Hotels, presenting a well-rounded business in a growing northern rivers municipality.
Set on a high street corner of Summerland Way, the two-storey brick hotel includes a popular public bar, bistro, well-equipped commercial kitchen, dining room, function room, and expansive beer garden and entertainment area, with a large rear car park.
Upstairs are 20 pub-style accommodation rooms that are in need of renovation and strategic promotion, suited to immediate value-add potential by catering to strong local demand from workers in the region’s busy beef processing facilities.
The asset also includes three fully-leased commercial tenancies, generating around $35K in passive income, which occupy one of the property’s three titles, totalling 2,250sqm.
Another is roughly 1,600sqm of undeveloped land, beside the highly visible corner pub, which enjoys a prominent 110 metres of street frontage in the heart of town.
Kyogle is a key agricultural centre within the northern rivers region, plush with prime cattle-grazing country, focusing a local economy based in livestock production but also seeing contributions from the timber milling industry and an emerging emphasis on organic and regenerative agriculture.
A local resident (LGA) population approaching 10K has witnessed significant growth in property values, underpinned by the strength of the economy and incoming residents, many having been motivated into a ‘tree-change’ migration.
The hotel business reports annual revenue of approximately $2.26 million, while sales literature suggests strategic capex, particularly in the accommodation, would unlock growth potential.
It’s suggested the Exchange would be well suited to an elevated food & bev offering, such as the ‘gourmet getaway’ at Uralla’s Bolt Inn.
The multiple lots, with “unmatched exposure”, make the asset suited to subdivision, expansion, or mixed-use redevelopment (STCA).
Waugh’s Watering Holes acquired the property in recent years from expanding hotelier Dominic Roche, who had bought it from June Greenaway, who had owner-operated it with her late husband Bill since 1978.
Watering Holes mostly counts assets in the New England region, and sale of the Exchange is to consolidate focus on the core of the portfolio.
A sale price approaching $2 million is anticipated for the freehold going concern.
HTL Property’s Ben Kennedy and Xavier Plunkett describe it as a “compelling entry-level hotel opportunity” set to attract established operators, family-run businesses, and first-time publicans looking for an opening.
“There exists significant upside here for a new operator to increase profitability from a more hands-on management approach, as well as top-line revenue growth for the business through a cosmetic refurbishment, targeted marketing, and activation of currently underutilised areas,” says Kennedy.
An Expressions of Interest campaign closes Wednesday, 9 July.
