Oscars Group buys Taylor Square pubs for $54m
Oscars Group, owned by brothers Bill and Mario Gravanis, has quietly picked up Darlinghurst’s Kinselas Hotel and The Courthouse Hotel.
MA Financial was the seller, having held six years.
The deal is worth $54 million.
The combined 1050 square metre holding has three street frontages, also to Oxford and Little Oxford streets.
The venues include sports bars, function rooms, nightclub spaces, a bistro, 12 accommodation rooms and 43 electronic gambling machines.
Also included in the sale is adjoining shops at 379-381 Bourke Street.
Recent site history
MA Financial assembled the Taylor Square holding in 2020, buying The Courthouse Hotel for $22 million from the Wright family, which had owned it since 1990.
The following month, it snapped up the Kinselas for $45m – Australia’s biggest pub transaction at the time (continues below).
That seller was the Kospetas family’s Universal Hotels which paid the Australian Pub Fund, associated with John Singleton and Geoff Dixon, $23m in 2017.
In September, 2023, MA Financial agreed to sell the properties to developer Mark Toma’s Virtical for $61 million – but the deal failed to settle.
The following June, the NSW Supreme Court ordered the purchasers to complete the contracts.
Subsequent proceedings resulted in a further order requiring Mr Toma, as guarantor, to perform the contracts and pay the outstanding consideration.
In December, 2024, the NSW Court of Appeal overturned that order – finding the guarantee did not oblige Mr Toma personally to complete the purchases.
MA Financial’s Head of Hospitality, Chris Unger, said the venues were held outside its Redcape portfolio in a standalone fund, that had come to maturity.
JLL’s John Musca was the agent.
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