Harvest Keeps Busy with $51m Pub Buy

Windsor Castle Hotel in NSW has changed hands for $51 million, a national record for a regional non-coastal pub. 

The hotel in East Maitland, 160km north of Sydney, was sold by owners Sean O’Hara and Nick Quinn in an off-market deal to Sydney-based pub fund Harvest Hotels, which is headed by Chris Cornforth and Fraser Haughton. 

The acquisition is Harvest Hotels’ largest to date—it previously outlaid $29 million in April for Wagga Wagga’s Victoria Hotel, the previous record. 

Harvest Hotels also owns the Woy Woy Hotel on the NSW Central Coast, the William Farrer Hotel and The Vic in Wagga Wagga, Brady’s Railway Hotel in Albury, and the Milestone Hotel in Dubbo.

The company has also recently said it will open its Harvest Pub Fund 1 for more investment. 

The Windsor Castle Hotel is two hours north of Sydney on a 5000sq m site and has 30 gaming machine entitlements, a bar, bistro, beergarden,  drive-through bottleshop and carpark. 

The 1920s-style building also has 14 3.5 star rooms and an EBIDTA of around $4 million.  

JLL Hotels and Hospitality Group’s senior vice-president Ben MacDonald, and vice president Kate MacDonald brokered the deal.

“This transaction highlights the market’s willingness to pursue assets underpinned by robust trading fundamentals in key growth locations,” MacDonald said.

▲ Previous record holder the Victoria Hotel in Wagga Wagga.

The pub first opened in 1886. O’Hara and Quinn bought the property in 2015 and undertook renovations to make it more family friendly.

JLL Hotels and Hospitality has also recently announced the $28-million sale of The Glenquarie Tavern, which broke records for the largest sale of a leasehold in the NSW market.

The news also comes as the Thomas family lists The Oaks Hotel in Neutral Bay for $175 million.

More than $300 million in total exchanged hands during a six-week period between April and May this year as pub sales took of—the hotel sector has raked in nearly $2 billion during the past 12 months.

Former Sydney lord mayor Nelson Meers broke records buying Casula’s The Crossroads for $160 million and family-owned Karellas Group and Mitchell Waugh’s PHMG Group bought the Minskys Hotel for $39 million.