More pubs for sale as Justin Hemmes shakes up Victoria’s market

Freehold pubs are proving to be one of the hottest property purchases this year despite 15 months of uncertain opening hours - and counting.

Recent lightning strikes into Victorian territory by Sydney bar king Justin Hemmes and the staggering $33 million sale of the Boundary Hotel in East Bentleigh at the start of lockdown, have drawn new assets to market.

Justin Hemmes’ family company Merivale paid $38 million last month for The Lorne Hotel in regional Victoria and in May shelled out around $40 million for Tomasetti House in Melbourne’s CBD.Credit: Louise Kennerley .

Investors are banking punters and drinkers will be keen to get back to their old haunts and habits after the pandemic and lockdowns ease.

JLL agents Will Connolly, Stuart Taylor and Tom Noon - fresh from selling ALE’s Boundary Hotel on a sharp 4.32 per cent yield - are marketing the Junction Club in Moonee Ponds.

The expressions of interest campaign for the pokies pub, which is leased to the Moonee Valley Racing Club for six years, has been extended to June 23 given the lockdown’s restriction of inspections.

Records show the Mt Alexander Road pub last changed hands in 2015 for $10.7 million.

Mr Connolly said there’s been strong interest in the pub at around the 5.5 per cent yield mark. Given it returns $845,000 in rent, the pub should fetch around $15 million.

“Lockdown hasn’t deterred enquiry as much as it would have in the past and potential purchasers know we will get through this,” he said.

The pub has a large gaming room with 80 machines, a separate sports bar and TAB and a bistro on the basement and ground levels. There are offices on the first floor. It’s on a 1942 sq m site with parking for 29 cars.

Customs House

Also on the market is the Customs House Hotel which is on 1100 sq m of land on Williamstown’s golden mile, Nelson Place.

CBRE agents Scott Callow, David Minty and Jin Jun Heng, along with James Gregson Commercial’s James Gregson and Martin Huang are handling enquiries.

The pub returns $247,000 a year and is expected to fetch around $6 million.

And nearby in Footscray, the Reverence Hotel, freshly leased to Cult Leader, the hospitality group behind CBD-based Cherry Bar and Fitzroy’s Yah Yahs, is also for sale.

The Junction Club in Moonee Ponds is back on the market.Credit:

It’s on a large 1234 sq m corner site and marketed as having the potential for a six-level redevelopment.

Advanced Hospitality Brokers agents Mark Durnan and John Crooks are running the campaign which is expected to yield offers of around $5.5 million.

“Locals are pretty happy it’s staying a pub,” Mr Durnan said.

Surgeon Puckles up

High-profile cosmetic surgeon Daniel Lanzer is moving into Moonee Ponds’ Puckle Street strip.

Dr Lanzer has leased 94 Puckle Street on a four-year lease paying $78,000 a year in a deal struck by Fitzroys agent Ervin Niyaz.

The 170 sq m shop is in a prime position on the healthy strip next door to Chemist Warehouse.

Dr Lanzer is adding to his chain of clinics around Australia and on Glenferrie Road Malvern in the eastern suburbs.

While the new locale gives him plenty of exposure to city’s cashed-up west, Moonee Ponds’ population is also expected to get a boost from the thousands of apartments under construction in the area at Penny Lane and the Moonee Valley Racecourse.

Puckle Street has been one of Melbourne’s better-performing strips in the past 12 to 18 months, according to Fitzroys’ upcoming Walk the Strip report.

Mr Niyaz has also let the former Flight Centre shop at No.44 to State of Grace Jewellery at $70,000 a year. The jeweller had moved between local shopping centres before settling on the strip.

Cosmetic surgeon Daniel Lanzer will open in Puckle Street, Moonee Ponds.Credit:

In other leasing deals, Penny Lane’s builder Harris HMC Construction has taken a 212 sq m shop at No.31, paying $60,000 a year and a beauty salon, Hydra Skin Bar has leased 2/533 Mount Alexander Road.

And in another sign of the times, an astrology centre has taken just a one-year lease at 6/39 Puckle Street, paying $12,000 a year.

Sleeping duck

Online mattress retailer Sleeping Duck is moving out of a single bed on Victoria Street, Abbotsford and stretching out across a king-size in Prahran.

The successful retailer, which recently pitched its founders Selvam Sinappan and Winston Wijeyeratne on to the Australian Financial Review’s Young Rich list, has leased an entire 1010 sq m building at 8 Carlton Street, Prahran.

The fast-growing bedding provider has signed a three year lease paying $450 a sq m a year on the building in Prahran’s commercial precinct between Chapel Street and the pool.

Colliers agents Matt Cosgrave and Ash Dean did the deal.

The entrepreneurs are said to be looking at floating Sleeping Duck the Australian Stock Exchange.

Homewares, big and small, have done well in the past year as we spent more time at home, wearing out our couches and beds.

Auction action

A 1304 sq m development site in Frankston has sold for $2.58 million at an online receivers auction.

Four of the 11 registered bidders put their hands up - virtually - pushing the price 37 per cent above it’s reserve price of $1.875 million.

Stonebridge agents Julian White, Max Warren and Chao Zhang acted for the receiver KordaMentha.

Records show Korda Mentha was appointed in March to look after the affairs of Frankston Commercial Investments, a company controlled by Frankston developer Jacques Khouri.

Sleeping Duck Pty Ltd has moved to new digs at 8 Carlton Street , Prahran.Credit:

Frankston Commercial Investments had paid $1.55 million for the property in mid-2017.

Work had already started on the site at 345 Nepean Highway, on the corner of Mereweather Avenue, one block back from the beach. It has a permit for a four-level project with 25 apartments and a shop.

Treaty site

Beulah has unveiled its plans for a site on the Merri Creek in Northcote which it bought at the peak of the last property cycle in 2017.

Fifteen houses are proposed for the 5018 sq m site at 2a Cunningham Street for which the developer paid $12.63 million.

Beulah is calling the project The Wilds and setting the three, four and five-bedroom houses among the established trees on the site.

The land on the bend of the Merri, opposite Rushall Station, is where historians believe Tasmanian John Batman made a treaty with the Wurundjeri people on June 6, 1835 for about 2000 sq km of land.

Designed by architecture studio Edition Office, The Wilds houses are priced from $1.9 million.

It’s a long way from the various goods exchanged in 1835.

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