Inner Sydney publican, Paddy Coughlan, has sold the leasehold to Newtown pub, Botany View Hotel. Coughlan exits pub operations with the sale of the hotel.
The leasehold was purchased by Balmain-based publican Justin Small, with the transaction brokered by CBRE’s Kate MacDonald and Ben McDonald. The sale price remains undisclosed.
Botany View Hotel features a two-level trading footprint, a 2am trading licence from Thursday to Sunday, a first-floor small bar offering known as the South King Recreation Club, and 12 EGMs.
Coughlan had tried to divest the freehold of the Botany View Hotel — known colloquially as the BVH — earlier in the year, without success.
“This is an ideal marriage of an enthusiastic operator thirsty for another opportunity and a long-time publican looking to exit the day-to-day,” stated MacDonald.
“Paddy has enjoyed some great success in Newtown, which currently acts as the entertainment hub of Sydney, but now he turns his hat to ‘landlord’, which will be a nice change of pace and keeps him in touch with the industry he loves.”
Publican no more
Coughlan — who has had a varied career as a hotel operator with Riversdale Group, the Australian Pub Fund and his own Bourke St group — signalled his intention to exit the pub operations business earlier in the year. In early 2019 he placed his remaining two venues, The Lord Gladstone Hotel and the Botany View Hotel on the market. The former was sold as a freehold asset within a month to George Kazzi for $5.5 million.
Coughlan will instead focus on the growth of his alcoholic lemonade, Frank Strong’s, which signed a national distribution deal earlier in the year.