Adgemis’ Public Hospitality loses Paddington pub after Balmain Town Hall Hotel sold off

A mystery buyer has snapped up one of Jon Adgemis’s former keystone pubs at Paddington for about $20m, days after another of his sittes was sold at auction by receivers for $9.5m.

Receivers have sold another asset which once belonged to former KPMG operative, Jon Adgemis.

The break-up of Jon Adgemis’s embattled Public Hospitality empire continues to gather pace with Paddington’s famed ‘Three Weeds’ sold off for about $20m. The sale of the pub, more formally known as The Rose, Shamrock and Thistle, was conducted by a mortgage fund that took possession of the high-profile pub last year.

The disposal came hot on the heels of another set of receivers this week selling off another former key assets in Adgemis’ empire - the vacant freehold for the Balmain’s Town Hall Hotel to a private investor for $9.5m.

The buyers of that property and of the Paddington property are yet to be revealed but the exits mark some of the first successful exits in the wake of lenders seizing control of key Public Hospitality assets.

A one-time KPMG deal-maker, Mr Adgemis bought the site in Balmain for about $8m in mid-2017 via an unsolicited offer to the Balmain Pub Group, but less than 12 months after buying it the hotel was returned to market as a mixed-use passive freehold.

Over the past decade the popular pub, built in 1888, has operated as a hotel and also as a mixed-use property. In 2022 there were major plans to renovate it.

The Mexican themed bar inside the pub.

The two-storey building occupies a strategic triple street frontage on Darling Street and incorporates below-ground storage, retail space, and accommodation plus a rooftop terrace with city views. The property has a DA approval to operate as a pub and cafe.

The sale of the pub in Oxford St in Paddington came after the Australia Pacific Mortgage Fund in last year listed the flagship venue, which houses Mexican cocktail bar El Primo Sanchez bar inside the pub.

Real estate agency HTL Property handled both Sydney pub sales.

HTL agents Andrew Jolliffe, Dan Dragicevich and Sam Handy sold the popular Oxford St venue.

“A mainstay of the up-market Paddington hospitality scene, the traditional pub aesthetic promoted and when combined with the inherent developable capacity enjoyed by the Three Weeds, projected itself magnetically to multiple parties pursuing the opportunity,” Mr Jolliffe

Australia Pacific Mortgage Fund stepped in to take control of the property in May last year, as well as Mr Adgemis’ Kurrajong Hotel in Erskineville in Sydney’s inner west.

Other lenders have taken caveats out on the Paddington property’s title but it is unclear whether the sale price will cover their debts or what remains of their exposure to flailing the pub empire.

These lenders included Gemi Investments, a privately owned investment firm in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, and Equitable Investors, which are the trustees for an investment fund created by Lance Rosenberg’s Gleneagle Securities. Large investors in that group have included billionaire businessman Alex Waislitz’s Thorney vehicle.

Short-term specialist Bizcap, billed as Australia’s most open-minded lender, also had a caveat on the property.

Rose, Shamrock & Thistle Hotel at Paddington. Photo: Google maps

Creditors called in five of the Public Hospitality Group’s pubs late last year, taking possession of the Camelia Grove Hotel in Alexandria, Oxford House in Paddington, The Norfolk in Redfern, The Strand in Darlinghurst and the Exchange Hotel.

Wexted Advisory’s Joseph Hayes and Christopher Johnson were appointed by lender Latrobe Financial to sell the Town Hall Hotel, which was sold vacant possession.

In turn, adviser Wexted appointed HTL Property agents Sam Handy and Andrew Jolliffe, along with Colliers’ James Cowan and Matthew Meynell.

Mr Jolliffe has previously said that while clearly not restricted to hospitality use, pub sites such as this have been particularly sought after these past few months due to compressed interest rates and the malleability of multi-level commercial property holdings in key corner locations.

Meanwhile, HTL Property has been appointed to another receivership sale, this time on Sydney’s Lower North Shore.

Receivers are flogging the popular Pickled Possum bar on Sydney’s North Shore.

The freehold going concern interest in the Pickled Possum in Neutral Bay has hit the market, with the agents touting the fact that the Military Road bar has a licence to operate until 2am between Monday and Saturday.

“It is anticipated that it will appeal to a broad range of hospitality buyer segments including hoteliers, restaurateurs, bar operators, craft beer brewers, wineries and even spirits distillers,” said HTL Property director Sam Handy.

“The Pickled Possum is a much-loved and cherished late-night Lower North Shore bar that has entertained several generations of patrons.

“We anticipate intense interest in this asset given not only the sentimentality that is attached to it, but also its compelling underlying land, building and business fundamentals.”

The venue went into receivership recently, with Joseph Hansell and Vaughan Strawbridge of FTI Consulting appointed receivers and managers.

Expressions of interest in The Pickled Possum, which has a price guide of around $2.5m, close on August 7.

Owner Bob Patterson has put in plans for a 78-room boarding house on the site of the former piano bar in Neutral Bay.