Company chiefs take to Byron Bay in pub bonanza

The coastal township has drawn Hollywood stars, wealthy families and now the heads of listed companies as big property buyers.

A pair of ASX-listed company founders have purchased Byron Bay’s legendary Great Northern Hotel in the largest hotel deal of the year for a price of close to $80m.

A pair of ASX-listed company founders have purchased Byron Bay’s legendary Great Northern Hotel in the largest hotel deal of the year for a price of close to $80m.

While billionaire pub baron Justin Hemmes and Sydney’s Laundy family have been purchasing in Byron Bay of late, the Northern NSW hotel coupled with the adjacent 51-room Lateen Lane Hotel, has been sold for around $80m to the little known Scott Didier, the Melbourne-based founder of the ASX-listed Johns Lyng Group and Scott Emery, founder of online lender MoneyMe.

The Didier family has solely acquired the Lateen Lane Hotel and are set to run the day-to-day operations.

The two families are no strangers to Byron with a three decade long association to the idyllic northern NSW town given their existing Beach Suites accommodation and various commercial investments in the booming area.

The vendors were the region’s long term publicans the Mooney family who have diverse pub interests across the Northern Rivers while the selling agents were JLL Hotels & Hospitality John Musca, Ben McDonald and Andrew Langsford. They confirmed the sale but would not comment on the details of the transaction.

The Mooneys had owned and operated the Great Northern Hotel for around three decades, with much of the pub’s success due to its location on a 2000sq m site on the main thoroughfare of Byron Bay’s Jonson Street. The 20-room pub also sports a restaurant, bars and drive through bottle shop. The neighbouring accommodation was developed by the Mooney family in 2009.

The new owners are set to improve the existing offering.

“Scott and I are just so delighted to be the new custodians of the Northern and to have the privileged opportunity to engage with the local community in the next incarnation of this very special pub, in such a special place, and my family are so excited about the Lateen Lane Hotel and what we can create there,” said Mr Didier in a statement.

JLL Managing Director John Musca said the hotel was a “truly irreplaceable business and real estate asset, driving the competition that has delivered its generational sale”.

Originally published as Company chiefs take to Byron Bay in pub bonanza