Sydney restaurateur snaps up Budgewoi hotel
Sydney hospitality veteran Bill Drakopoulos has picked up Budgewoi’s Coast Hotel, which will be managed with his sons Daniel and Perry.
The waterfront pub at 169 Budgewoi Road, on the south east corner of Ocean Street, is costing $15 million
The vendors, Michael Barlow and Mark and Joanne Stead, via a company, Down the Booza Pty Ltd, paid $6.9m in December, 2005; at the time the venue was known as the Budgewoi Inn
HTL Property’s Dan Dragicevich and Blake Edwards brokered the latest sale, off-market, in December.
Budgewoi is about 100 kilometres north of Sydney.
SRG expands into hotels
Bill Drakopoulos owns Sydney Retail Group, which holds a portfolio of 15 hospitality assets – a mix including fine dining restaurants, cafes, function centres and wine catering.
It also controls a home catering division.
Seven months ago the group acquired Walsh Bay Italian bistro Ventuno (story continues below).
The Coast Hotel is its first pub.
“Our core values have always been focused on offering the best service and products in locations and settings that are truly unique,” Mr Drakopoulos said.
“Our venture into hotels is something we have been planning for quite some time and we very much look forward to creating amazing spaces and offerings, fitting of the surrounds, much like we have done with our existing restaurants,” he added.
String of Central Coast, Newcastle deals
The latest SRG deal comes nine months since Oscars Hotels paid $20m for the Beachcomber Toukley, a couple of kilometres south of the Coast Hotel.
Two pub sales in Newcastle, about 50km north of Budgewoi, were struck in the second half of last year, also to new entrants in the sector, including:
- Partners Group Australia, led by Sydney private equity banker Martin Scott, outlaying $20m for the c1880 Lucky Hotel;
- Reklaw Hotels, which spent $16m for the c1876 Duke of Wellington.
At Woy Woy, midway between Budgewoi and Sydney, Arthur Laundy and his son, Stu, recently purchased the Bay View Hotel for $38m, while Harvest Hotels paid $32m for the c1897 Woy Woy Hotel.
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