The Cambridge Tavern at Fairfield, Sydney is the latest pub to hit the market with a price expectation of more than $20 million.
The sale by the private Melbourne-based Aussie Leisure Group, is for the freehold as it has a lease until 2058 to the Woolworths Hotel Arm, ALH.
The Cambridge Tavern last traded as a freehold going concern in 2007 for about $45 million and then completed the lease with ALH.
Aussie Leisure Group is also selling the Tea Gardens hotel at Bondi Junction, which is worth about $40 million.
Selling agent for the two pubs, Ray White Hotel’s director Andrew Jolliffe said the leases to ALH, and the length of the Cambridge Tavern lease, were both extremely rare and keenly sought after.
ALH is the operator of over 300 hotels nationally, and the Bruce Mathieson lead company represents a mix of freehold and leasehold hotels interests.
‘‘The Cambridge Tavern lease is superior to others in many respects, primarily because as well as the 5800 square metres of prime commercial land, the landlord also enjoys ownership of the hotel licence and valuable 30 poker machine licences,’’ Mr Jolliffe said.
‘‘In and of itself the Fairfield City Council area enjoys a high representation, approx 20%, of the state's top 50 gaming venues, an important statistic and illustrative of the potency and reliability of one of the tenant's key revenue streams.’’
The sales come amid a flurry of pub deals, one most recently being the sale of the Bellevue in Woollahra by the John Singelton-backed Riversdale Group, the Beach Palace Hotel in Coogee, worth about $30 million, by Justin Hemmes of Merivale and the Evening Star in Surry Hills.
The Lord Dudley at Woolahra is also being offered for the first time as freehold through Knight Frank's director of hotels, Mike Wheatley.
The current owner, James Couche, has been at the hotel for 35 years. It is a three-storey brick, Tudor-style pub with bars, function rooms, a residence, office and cellar.
