Billionaire Sydney Rooster’s Boss Inks Caxton Hotel Deal

If Lang Park is The Cauldron—Queensland’s undisputed home of rugby league—the Caxton Hotel is the boiler room for the 52,500 impassioned fans that fill the stadium on the edge of the Brisbane CBD.

Without a doubt a trophy pub, it has changed hands for the first time in almost 30 years.

Billionaire Sydney Roosters chairman Nick Politis has swooped, inking a $50-million deal for the iconic watering hole, adding it to his SEQ Hospitality Group’s portfolio of hotel assets.

Occupying a 2265sq m site at 38 Caxton Street, Petrie Terrace—a short walk from Lang Park’s Suncorp Stadium—it has been offloaded by the Farquhar family.

The original Caxton Hotel was built in 1864 and gutted by fire nine years later. It was subsequently re-established across the road on its current site.

With the pub’s takeover by the Sydney Roosters boss, it remains to be seen if a new line in the sand has been drawn, particularly when the State of Origin comes to town.

Will the army of Queensland rugby league fans stand their ground or move to take up position at the nearby Beetson Hotel?

Formerly the Gambaro Hotel, it was acquired three years ago by the Australian Rugby League Commission—the NRL’s controlling body—in a deal reportedly worth more than $25 million.

▲ The landmark Caxton Hotel has changed hands for the first time in almost 30 years.

Approval by the Queensland liquor and gaming authority of the Caxton Hotel sale is pending.

Politis’s SEQ Hospitality Group owns several other South-East Queensland hotels, including the QA in Fortitude Valley, Tree Tops in West Burleigh, the Boathouse in Coomera, the Ashmore Tavern, Aspley Tavern and The Plough Inn.

Meanwhile, Gold Coast–based investment group Singh Enterprises has expanded its footprint in Brisbane’s Spring Hill with the acquisition of the 52-room Soho Brisbane Hotel and the former St Alban’s Liberal Catholic Church.

The assets reportedly have been purchased for close to $20 million.

The transaction follows the group’s $44.8-million purchase last year of the 179-room former Pacific Hotel (subsequently rebranded Mercure Spring Hill) at 345 Wickham Terrace, which neighbours the two properties—creating one of Spring Hill’s largest contiguous landholdings at 4150sq m, opposite Roma Street Parkland.

▲ On the march outside inner-city Brisbane’s Caxton Hotel.

Singh Enterprises, led by father-and-son team Teja and Sammy Singh, is a diversified family company with holdings across self-storage, service stations, and significant agricultural investments in the poultry sector.

“Our focus has always been on acquiring quality, well-located assets with long-term potential,” director Sammy Singh said.

“With three properties now under our ownership, we are excited to contribute to the ongoing evolution of Spring Hill and explore options that contribute to the area’s hospitality and accommodation landscape.”

CBRE Hotels’ Wayne Bunz and Hayley Manvell negotiated the latest deal via an off-market expressions-of-interest campaign.

“This is a generational holding in one of Brisbane’s most character-filled urban corridors, consolidating three prime Spring Hill properties with mixed-use zoning under a single owner, paving the way for one of the suburb’s most significant long-term redevelopment opportunities,” Bunz said.

▲ Aerial view of Spring Hill’s former Pacific Hotel and surrounding properties.

“These acquisitions give the buyer the flexibility to explore a large-scale mixed-use redevelopment over time, while benefiting from high-performing assets in the interim.

“The Singh family’s vision for Wickham Terrace reflects the continued strength of Brisbane’s city-fringe investment market, driven by its proximity to major transport, hospitals and the future Cross River Rail and Roma Street precincts.”

Manvell said: “Brisbane’s hotel investment market is hotly sought after, yet tightly held with limited opportunities to enter, buoyed further by record levels of infrastructure spending and population growth.

“Purchasers like the Singh family recognise the long-term fundamentals driving the city’s transformation ahead of the 2032 Games.”