Laundy family outlays $150m for NSW pubs, farm
The Laundy family is paying business partner Fraser Short about $150 million for the 50 per cent interest it didn’t control of six New South Wales assets.
Brokered off market, the deal includes, in Sydney, the Northies at Cronulla, Park House in Mona Vale and Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel – the latter acquired in 2012 for $30m from the Doyle family which held for 125 years and five generations.
The portfolio’s other pubs are around Byron Bay: the Lennox Head Hotel (pictured, top), which cost the pair $40m 24 months ago and Evans Head’s Hotel Illawong – which is speculated to have set the partners back $15m shortly after.
Also trading is full ownership of The Farm Byron Bay, which spreads 31 hectares in Ewingsdale.
Laundy Hotels and Fraser Short paid $16m for that working farm in January, 2020 – just before the national lockdown.
HTL Property’s Andrew Jolliffe brokered the portfolio sale.
“A great deal for both parties and one that represents the collegiate nature of the respective families and the prosperous 10 year professional relationship they have both enjoyed regarding some of Australia’s most iconic hospitality assets,” he said.
Following the trade, Mr Short still holds a hospitality portfolio including Jugiong’s 165 year old Sir George Hotel, a luxury accommodation venue said to hold Australia’s longest singularly held liquor licence, which cost $14m in late 2021 (story continues below).
Pub shuffle
Directed by octogenarian Arthur Laundy, Laundy Hotels controls dozens of assets – a mix of pubs, accommodation venues and bottle shops.
Last year, the executive bolstered his book with Casula’s Hunts Hotel Liverpool, the Lake Albert at Wagga Wagga and in Port Macquarie, the Tacking Point Tavern and the Mercure Centro.
The businessman was also busy during 2021 snaring regional assets in Wollongong and Woy Woy.
In Sydney, the spending spree that year included Redfern’s Woolpack Hotel and Rydges Bankstown at Bass Hill too.
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