Parras acquires East Ballina’s Shaws Bay Hotel, Fenwick House
Siblings Debbie, Neville and Vicky Hayter have sold East Ballina’s Shaws Bay Hotel and neighbouring Fenwick House after three decades.
The c$31 million deal is with Sydney based Parras Hospitality, led by Colin Peter Parras.
Spreading a 6518 square metre B1 Neighbourhood Centre waterfront site, the property includes the pub, with 14 electronic gambling machines and a beer garden overlooking Shaws Bay.
The restored Fenwick House, developed by Lord Fenwick in 1886, and formerly a hostel, was marketed for its potential to be repositioned as a boutique hotel or office.
Elsewhere in New South Wales, Parras Hospitality in 2016 acquired the Campbelltown region Ambarvale Hotel, later undertaking a multi-million dollar refurbishment and extension with a micro brewery, kids play area, VIP lounge, sports bar and cafe.
JLL’s John Musca, Ben McDonald and Kate MacDonald represented the Hayters.
Busy year for sales
The Shaws Bay Hotel and Fenwick House sale comes nine months since Laundy Hotels and Fraser Short paid brothers Clyde and Greg Campbell $40m for the Lennox Head Hotel, about 10 kilometres north of Ballina (story continues below).
About 20 km north of there, at Byron Bay, the Mooney family in June sold the Great Northern and adjoining Lanteen Lane Hotel to Melbourne businessmen Scott Didier and Scott Emery for c$80m, while Justin Hemmes’ Merivale outlaid c$13.5m for the ex-Cheekey Monkey’s bar, with development plans.
At Evans Head, about 40 km south of Ballina, the art deco Hotel Illawong traded in March for c$15m.
Laundy Hotels and Fraser Short were again the buyers, in a partnership with Nick and Justine Tindall (nee Laundy).
“The hotel investment market continues to mature in its recognition that there are no yield benchmarks for irreplaceable coastal pub hotels, with business cases differing for each remarkable location, so transactions have evidenced a wide range from three to seven per cent,” Mr Musca said.
“The Shaws Bay purchasers confidently backed their vision, expeditiously moving to exceed the owner’s pricing expectations and cognisant that a significant capital deployment can undoubtedly deliver a very special hospitality asset in the future,” he added.
“Naturally there’s always a lot of emotion that accompanies long-term owners farewelling a family asset, so realising a great result and seeing its custodianship pass to a new and respectful stakeholder is a fulfilling outcome”.
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