Victorian businessman Rakesh Palta buys Bundaberg’s Grand Hotel

An iconic Bundaberg pub has finally been sold after spending months on the market. We reveal who bought it and what they plan to do with it:

Bright yellow Bundaberg rum-adorned awnings hanging from the outside of a large two-storey hotel in the heart of Bundaberg is one of the first things people notice when the visit the CBD for the first time.

The Grand Hotel’s iconic branding has been left unappreciated for several months, much to the detriment of the eye-catching pub that still holds special memories of a bygone era for many locals.

The pub underwent an extensive $1 million refurbishment in 2019 to include a large main bar area, restaurant, function facilities, beer garden and 27 accommodation rooms utilised as a 90-bed backpacker facility.

The Grand Hotel Bundaberg has been sold for $3.6m.

It officially re-opened in August 2020, but it seemed no matter how many of the pub’s delectable ‘unicorn cocktail’s’ were sold, the owners couldn’t keep it afloat.

They announced its closure on March 16, 2021.

Now just over a year later, the 137-year-old building has been sold after being on the commercial market for several months.

An historic photo of the Grand Hotel in Bundaberg.

CoreLogic data has revealed the Grand Hotel is now in the hands of Rakesh Palta, who bought the pub under the name 79 Grand Hotel Pty Ltd for $3.6 million in April.

Mr Palta is involved in a number of other businesses including 31 Bourbong Street Pty Ltd, PNR Assets Holding Pty Ltd, Yuille Street Investments Pty Ltd, Supriya Investments Pty Ltd, Aarav Investments Pty Ltd, PNR Trucking Pty Ltd, PNR Transport Pty Ltd, Saranya Developers Pty Ltd, Casa Property Group Pty Ltd, DGRP Enterprises Pty Ltd, Steelboss Pty Ltd, Auctor Pty Ltd, Oxford Capital Pty Ltd, TBE Developments Pty Ltd, 26 Williamson Pty Ltd and Xpress Agi Hire Pty Ltd.

CBRE Hotels’ National Pub Director Paul Fraser ran the hotel’s Expressions of Interest campaign on behalf of the mortgagee in possession, High Country Pastoral Pty Ltd.

A CBRE spokesperson saidthe owner would spend some money ‘tidying up’ the hotel before renting the bar and the backpackers out to a prospective lessee.