Sarah Sands for sale

Sarah Sands reopened at the end of May.

Peregrine Projects is selling Brunswick’s Sarah Sands Hotel after redeveloping the site with apartments and extended retail.

The pub is expected to trade for more than $7 million.

It only recently reopened after a c$2m refurbishment undertaken in partnership with the occupier, Australian Venue Co, which is on a 10 year lease.

The hotel, when it was for sale in 2015.

Colliers’ Guy Wells, Ben Baines and Tom Isaksson are the marketing agents.

Brunswick is about five kilometres north of Melbourne.

New chapter for hotel

Developed in 1854, Sarah Sands Hotel was said to be named after the boat which bought the original licensee, Robert Barry, to Australia.

More than 30 years ago, it was occupied as an adult club.

From the early 1990s, it traded as Irish pub Bridie O’Reilly (story continues below).

The former Bridie O’Reilly beer garden.

Peregrine Projects, directed by Joseph Chahin, bought it in 2015 – later winning approval to replace the 1062 square metre site’s western boundary with a three and seven level complex containing 31 dwellings and retail.

AVC agreed to occupy the hotel in 2019, while the property was being redeveloped.

The pub now includes a public bar and restaurant.

Booming pocket

The hotel’s local catchment is set to increase – with Mirvac recently paying $40m for a 6496 sqm site, diagonally adjacent at 699 Park Street, with plans for a major apartment complex likely to contain over 300 dwellings.

Just south of there, the AFL Women’s League is setting up its base at Visy Park (formerly known as Princes Park).

Elsewhere in the suburb, Hines is also intending a Build to Rent project at a Ballarat St block it acquired for $16.5m in August, while a consortium including Aesop founder Dennis Paphitis is intending a residential based redevelopment of the Brunswick Market.

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Marc Pallisco

A former property analyst and print journalist, Marc is the publisher of realestatesource.com.au.