Bill and Mario Gravanis purchase Crowne Plaza Surfers Paradise for $100m

The Oscars Hotel Group founders have purchased a major asset in their first foray into Queensland’s booming Gold Coast.

Bill and Mario Gravanis have amassed more than 30 hotel assets including now the Crowne Plaza and Gold Tower in Surfers Paradise.

Sydney’s pub-owning Gravanis brothers have purchased the Crowne Plaza Surfers Paradise in their first foray into Queensland’s booming Gold Coast paying around $100m.

The Gravanis brothers, Bill and Mario, who started Oscars Hotel Group in the 1980s, have amassed more than 30 hotel assets stretching from small suburban pubs, to larger hospitality assets such as the Novotel Wollongong and Brighton Beach hotels as well as several assets on the NSW Central Coast.

One of their larger plays was the purchase of Far North Queensland’s Long Island in 2021 and they are soon to announce their plans to refurbish it into a luxury resort.

Through a spokesman the media shy Gravanis brothers said the Gold Coast is at the forefront of ‘must visit’ domestic tourism destinations.

“The Crowne Plaza Surfers Paradise provides several opportunities outside of the core hotel business with the reactivation of the food and beverage venues, the tavern that boasts a solid passive trade, and the development site in what is a prime location,” said the spokesperson.

The 269-room hotel was recently refurbished by the vendor, a private Singapore family.

The Gravanis family said the hotel manager IHG Hotels and Resorts would continue to manage the property and Oscars Hotel Group would leverage on its other existing relationships to capitalise on opportunities in areas such as sales and marketing, finance and human resources.

Oscars said Crowne Plaza will be retained as manager and the relationship with IHG Hotels and Resorts will continue having re-negotiated a franchise agreement with IHG.

In Sydney, Oscars Hotel Group also control several local suburban pubs such as The Como Hotel, the Bankstown Hotel, the Camperdown Hotel and the Sports Hotel.

Meanwhile marketing agent Wayne Bunz, National Director of CBRE declined to comment on the marketing campaign for the Crowne Plaza Surfers Paradise but said the Gold Coast is enjoying one of strongest trading periods ever.

“We are seeing more investor demand than we have seen for the Gold Coast,” he said in a statement.

With domestic tourism now largely returned to pre-Covid-19 levels and the international tourism recovery well on its way the trading outlook for Gold Coast hotels is strong. The Gold Coast recorded a 51 per cent revenue per available room (Revpar) growth rate to $192.63 on a rolling 12 month period through to October 2022, reflecting an average daily rate of $289.87 which was up 19.3 per cent and occupancy of 66.5 per cent up 26.6 per cent and remains atop the best-performing markets in Australia according to data from STR.

September saw the Gold Coast boast the second-strongest levels of RevPAR for any hotel market in Australia.

“This growth in tourism and visitor levels, which is forecast to continue across the South East in the lead-up to the Olympics, is set to be supported by the recent $260m expansion of the Gold Coast Airport doubling the terminal size and easing capacity constraints,” Mr Bunz said.

“We expect occupancy levels to continue to improve throughout 2023 and 2024 as domestic demand continues to recover and international visitation returns,” said Mr Bunz.

Moderate ADR growth is forecast to continue over the medium to longer term as a result of the ongoing demand growth and the quality of new luxury product entering the Gold Coast market. Residential apartment developers such as multi-billionaire Harry Triguboff is also confident of the Gold Coast as is building a second high rise tower on The Esplanade.