Iris Capital has purchased the Sportsman’s Hotel in western Sydney for $23.4 million.
The hospitality and development group purchased the Blacktown pub off the Paul Irvin Hotel Group in an off-market deal. The sale was negotiated by John Musca of JLL Hotels & Hospitality.
The Paul Irvin Hospitality group have owned and operated the pub for twenty years, and were not looking to sell, but had received multiple unsolicited offers – with the Iris Capital offer too good to turn down.
“It’s with some emotion that we will sell the hotel after such a long period of ownership but the unsolicited offers presented were just too attractive for us to not engage with and we can redeploy the capital across the group advantageously,” stated CEO Joe Irvin.
The Paul Irvin Hotel Group were in the process of finalising a DA to renovate the hotel, and it is believed that Iris Capital will take advantage of that application.
The Sportsman’s Hotel is situated on a hectare of land, and its offer includes 30 EGMs and late trading approval. The property is B2 local centre zoned and is just 800 metres from the Blacktown train station.
“In a consolidating asset class the property attributes appear a strategic fit for the purchaser’s respected operating and development pedigree,” stated Musca.
“It’s an impressive site with favourable planning guidelines residing in a precinct with robust gaming and wagering fundamentals.”
The sale of the Sportsman Hotel takes Iris Capital’s expenditure on pub acquisitions for the year to more than $140 million, after the purchases of the Hotel Steyne in Manly and the Cambridge Tavern in Fairfield.
New South Wales has seen a high level of pub transactions in 2019, with over $434 million worth of hotels sold in the greater Sydney metropolitan area alone.
“We still have a number of hotel transactions to announce before the year’s end in what has been a manifestly active asset class propelled by the sheer weight of capital and fuelling ongoing industry consolidation,” stated Musca.
This is the second off-market Sydney gaming hotel transaction that JLL Hotels & Musca have announced recently, with the sale of the St George Hotel to Redcape announced last week.