Kelly & Co buy Sapphire Coast pub
Rod ‘Ned’ Kelly has picked up the freehold going concern to the Sapphire Coast’s Narooma Hotel.
The waterfront venue, on 2035 square metres zoned R3 – Medium Density with an 11.5 metre height limit, fetched nearly $15 million.
Outgoing operator Michael Sweeney was the seller after nearly 10 years.
The family in 2023 bought the Salisbury Hotel, in Sydney’s inner west Stanmore, from Ged Dore – also with plans to operate.
O’Brien’s Hotels also once owned the split-level Narooma pub.
Mr Kelly, via Kelly & Co Hotels, controls a major hospitality portfolio including the popular Kelly’s Irish Pub at Mudgee, held over a decade.
Between 2022/2023 – a more buoyant time in the sector – he divested some NSW pubs, the Old Bar Tavern, Tattersalls Hotel (Casino), Corindi Beach Hotel and Weston’s Criterion – the latter for a major short term capital gain.
Narooma Hotel
Previously known as O’Briens Hotel, the split level Narooma pub at 99-101 Campbell Street contains a bar, bistro and gaming room with 12 electronic gambling machines, licensed to trade until 1am Monday to Saturday.
It sits is a couple of hundred metres from the heritage protected Lynch’s Narooma, the freehold going concern to which Justin Hemmes’ Merivale acquired for $6m in 2022.
Between them is the Whale Inn – which Merivale bought two years earlier to convert into a high-end bistro (continues below).
HTL Property marketed the Narooma Hotel, 280 kilometres south of Sydney.
Macleay River Hotel sale
Meanwhile, Flower Hotels, led by Alistair Flower, has sold the Macleay River Hotel at Frederickton, six kilometres north of Kempsey, on the Mid North Coast.
Formerly the Post Office Hotel, known locally as the ‘Fredo’, the 3064 sqm riverfront property contains a bar, bistro, function room, bottle shop and seven guest suites
There is also a gaming room with six electronic gambling machine entitlements.
HTL was again the marketing agency. “The Macleay River Hotel offered a number of compelling attributes, including its substantial landholding, strong local patronage, and strategic waterfront position,” Xavier Plunkett said.
The buyer is another NSW hotelier.
More to come.
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