Romero owns a handful of successful Mexican restaurants under the Happy Mexican moniker and has started a similar concept at the Lansdowne. The pub will retain its live music focus.
Jolliffe said impending stage 3 tax concessions and stable interest rates, coupled with the sale of numerous hotels nationally, “suggests to us a strengthening of key actor sentiment in the broader hotel industry”.
Long-term pub barons Arthur and Stuart Laundy are boosting their portfolio, purchasing the Light Brigade hotel in Sydney’s eastern suburbs for $20 million. HTL Property also advised on the sale.
The Laundys bought the prominent four-storey corner site on Oxford Street from the Bayfield family who had owned it since 2015. Stuart Laundy said they were drawn to the location because it’s at the “Woollahra end of Paddington, so draws from both suburbs”.
“The AFL angle to it was something new and fun to explore given that we’re [NRL] leagueys with the [Canterbury] Bulldogs and Dad is great mates with several AFL players, including the older greats like Steve Silvagni, who played for Carlton,” he said. The pub is frequented by AFL fans intent on watching their teams play in Sydney.
“It’s local to me and my daughters love it, and it has the best rooftop bar I’ve seen in Sydney.”
Loading
Laundy said he will look at some of the food offerings “down the track”.
Other eastern suburbs venues owned by the Laundys are the Watsons Bay, Bells and Woolloomooloo Bay hotels.
“A few generations ago our family owned the Woollahra Hotel, and my father played rugby down at Easts; so I’m looking forward to a long association with a part of Sydney we love and know well,” Laundy added.
“When fourth-generation hoteliers buy from fourth-generation hoteliers, it says something patently clear about the longevity and strength of an asset class,” Jolliffe said.
“We’re buoyed by the traction enjoyed by the recent Light Brigade hotel sale and market depth for inner-city hotels such as The Lansdowne and others we are working with on an off-market basis.”
The Feros Group has also added an oceanfront pub to its portfolio with the acquisition of the leasehold interest in the Ocean Beach Hotel in Shellharbour.
The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.