Cecil Hotel at Southport for sale for second time in two years by owners Greg Ryall and Paul Smith
The owners of Southport landmark property the Cecil Hotel are getting frothy interest as they move to call last drinks on its sale for the second time in two years.
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The owners of Southport landmark property the Cecil Hotel are getting frothy interest as they move to call last drinks on its sale for the second time in two years.
The 88-year-old art deco hotel, on the Southport CBD’s most prominent corner, already has stirred inquiry from potential buyers along the eastern seaboard.
It is owned by Surfers Paradise resident Greg Ryall, 77, and Adelaide-based Paul Smith, 75, and its sale has been motivated by age and health.
The partners marketed the property in 2021 in a campaign that drew more than 100 inquiries and offers of around $13 million.
An expressions of interest campaign in the latest sales push closes on Friday.
The anchor tenant at the Cecil is the ALH group, which has a lease that runs to 2035 and lease options to 2055.
The property, on an 1889sq m site on the corner of Nerang and Scarborough streets, includes five retail tenancies, and three offices on the top floor.
It is netting $922,000 a year, with some of that profit derived from poker machines.
RWC’s Stephen Kidd yesterday said the Cecil offered a passive investment, with 70 per cent of the income underwritten by the listed ALH.
He said there was a demolition clause in place that could be exercised in 2025.
“Hence the property also provides a value-add play as the site is zoned to allow a building of up to 40 levels.”
Mr Kidd, who is marketing the hotel with Elliot Kidd, said institutions and private investors were inquiring about the Southport icon.
“Inquiry has come from a couple of hoteliers looking to expand into Queensland from NSW and South Australia, but not looking for management due to distance from their base operations.
“Several private investors are looking to move money out of Victoria due to the land-tax changes in that state.”
Southport first gained a Cecil Hotel on the existing site in 1908 when Nerang blacksmith Harry Taylor built a two-level wooden building that included room for 40 guests.
Thirty years later the building was moved to another part of the site and the owner at the time, Queensland Brewery, built the brick hotel that exists today.
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