Southern interest expected in the Coolangatta Sands Hotel

ONE of the Gold Coast’s oldest and best known pubs is on the market and is expected to spark southern interest.

ONE of the Gold Coast’s oldest and best known pubs is on the market with interest expected to come from around Australia.

The Taphouse Group — linked to the founders of marketing company Salmat, Philip Salter and Peter Mattick — is selling the Coolangatta Sands Hotel in the heart of the holiday hub.

HTL Property’s Andrew Jolliffe, who is selling the asset with Dan Dragicevich and Glenn Price, said the southeast Queensland pub market was very tight and the property should attract strong interest.

“The market appetite for very high quality freehold hospitality property remains both unquenched and active,” he said.

Having had a recent renovation, the two-level hotel in the Strand retail precinct has 40 gaming machine licenses, a restaurant, function areas and a 25-room accommodation section. It is on a 1067sq m site with the potential development upside of 23 storeys.

Industry sources expect it to sell for between $16 million and $18 million.

Previously the Kirrabelle Hotel, the current building on the corner of Griffith and McLean streets was constructed around 1926.

The Taphouse Group bought the hotel in 2005 for just under $11 million.

Mr Price said southern investors were increasingly competing with Queensland-based hoteliers for stock in a tight market.

In the past year HTL Property has sold a number of Queensland assets to Sydney-based groups, with Townsville’s Rising Sun Hotel bought by the Redcape Group for $21 million.

“While equally likely to be acquired by an investor with local knowledge, we are confident that both NSW and Victorian based investors will readily avail themselves of this unique opportunity,” Mr Price said.