Richlister Sam Arnaout makes $80m play for Strathfield Hotel

Pub baron Sam Arnaout has swooped on the popular Strathfield Hotel in Sydney’s west, as he looks to put his stamp on the large suburban hotel and potential development asset.

Pub baron Sam Arnaout acquires Strathfield Hotel in Sydney’s west. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Richlister Sam Arnaout has put his stamp on another large suburban hotel and potential development asset forking out around $80m to buy the Strathfield Hotel in Sydney’s west from the veteran pub-owning Whelan family.

The family were no doubt keen to cash in on the big prices being paid for Sydney pubs at present and could not resist selling out to Mr Arnaout’s Iris Capital.

Apart from owning the Steyne Hotel which Mr Arnaout purchased for $65m from Arthur Laundy and John Singleton at beachside Manly a few years back he is also developing five separate apartment buildings called Queensgate in Sydney’s Kings Cross.

Controlled by the Whelan family for more than a century the iconic hotel at Strathfield in Sydney’s inner west sits on a corner site adjacent to the busy Strathfield train station and sports the maximum allowable amount of pokies allowed on a hotel premises, some 30.

“We are particularly excited about this purchase given not only the privilege to take stewardship from the highly regarded Whelan family after 100 years of ownership, but also because my own family share such an affinity with

the hotel and area,” said Mr Arnaout in a statement on Friday.

The sale of the Strathfield Hotel was conducted via an off-market process, attracting interest from a wide variety of both institutional and private investor groups and was negotiated by HTL Property.

One of the vendors, Brian Whelan, said Mr Arnaout was the best placed to ensure the hotel’s maximisation and longevity as a landmark upon the Strathfield landscape is maintained.

The three storey hotel sports multiple bars, restaurant, gaming and accommodation areas over a 2000sqm footprint.

No doubt a sweetener to the deal for Mr Arnaout, a prominent developer, is the fact that the site has a Development Approval for 60 residential units to be built at the rear of the property which sources said he is likely to develop having paid such a big price for the pub.

“We often see market interest piqued for generational hospitality assets which also contain the optionality for further enhancement; such as substantial residential development levers or other alternative uses” said HTL Property National Director, Dan Dragicevich.

“Hence there was considerable market attraction to an asset which embodied practically all the fundamentals so readily sought by astute asset class participants,” Mr Dragicevich said.

Apart from his pubs and residential developments, Iris Capital also owns the Lasseter’s Casino in Alice Springs.