Andrew Lazarus’ Zenith Hotels has become only the second owner ever of the large-format Horsley Park Tavern, built and operated for 45 years by the Lubec family.
Yugoslavian immigrant Valentine Lubec came to Australia, settling with his wife Karen in Horsley Park, amongst what was largely farming land.
Inspired by a friendship with a beer baron he literally built the pub, laying around 200k bricks himself on a 10,500sqm corner site, opening the big Tavern in 1980. An old-school pub, it provides a public bar with TAB and sport on TVs, gaming with 15 machines, and “hearty pub meals” in the bistro.
But wracking up over four decades on the job, Valentine sadly passed away mid-2024. Late last year the family opted to list the asset, with price expectations of circa $20 million.
Sydney’s greater west continues its rapid growth, bolstered by the Western Sydney Airport major infrastructure project slated to open later this year, around 20 minutes from Horsley Park, and the complementary surrounding development.
Horsley Park is in Fairfield LGA, which is also the strongest performing gaming LGA in NSW, and hotel assets are tightly held.
Now sold for the first time since its creation, Zenith has acquired a big western Sydney pub and commercial landholding, around half of which is undeveloped, for about $25 million.
Timeline on the sale gives Lazarus options, to take cues from other offerings in the LGA and potentially redevelop the site.
Zenith has been reserved on property speculation for a while, having sold the Beach Hotel in Merewether to Glenn Piper in 2022, but taking the Rydalmere Tavern from the Salmons for around $65 million later that year.
The sale announcement this week, coming after settlement, did not disclose the purchaser or price, except to say the final amount “reflected the market guidance”.
“Pursuant to a short remaining lease term, this was a significant opportunity to purchase a rare western Sydney freehold hotel, in an area of the city inundated by housing and infrastructure growth,” advised HTL Property’s Dan Dragicevich.
HTL MD Andrew Jolliffe added that the venue’s scale and location in a “key development corridor” was what attracted potential buyers.
