ALE Auction Fails to Excite

By Andrew Starke

The ALE Property Group stumbled in its efforts to divest from the pub sector with three of its Queensland pubs failing to attract a single bid at auction.

Last week the group sold four Melbourne pubs for a combined value of $29.85 million.

However, Joel Fisher of agents CBRE told TheShout he was currently in negotiations on two of the three Queensland properties.

The pubs are all in the Brisbane CBD and include the Stones Corner Hotel, Stones Corner; Royal Exchange Hotel, Toowong; and Oxford 152 Hotel, Bulimba.

Each is leased to the 75 percent Woolworths-owned Australian Leisure & Hospitality Group (ALH), which will test the market further when it auctions a further seven pubs in April.

CBRE Hotels will also be hoping that the market in Queensland proves resilient to the twin threats of land tax and financing costs as it will act on behalf of Centro Properties Group to sell a portfolio of four South East Queensland pubs.

The freehold investment hotels will be auctioned individually at the Brisbane Polo Club from 12.30pm on Tuesday March 30.

The portfolio comprises three Brisbane hotels - the Mansfield Hotel at Mansfield, the Royal Mail Hotel at Tingalpa and the Club Hotel at Waterford West - as well as the Burleigh Town Tavern on Queensland's Gold Coast.

The Burleigh Town Tavern, Mansfield Tavern and Club Hotel are all leased long term to Liquorland, which is 100 percent owned by Coles Group.

The Royal Mail Hotel is leased to private entity Bell Hotel, part of the Fox Hotel Group, on a long term agreement which expires in 2022.

“We are continuing to field strong private investor demand for smaller value properties with long term leases to high quality tenants,” Fisher said.

“The sub $8 million price bracket, which the majority of the Centro properties fall into, has been particularly active.”