Jon Adgemis’ pays creditors, as his pubs rise from the ashes of Public Hospitality’s collapse

Hospitality operation Linchpin is taking over several of Jon Adgemis’ former pubs, as the property player seeks to pay creditors and complete several big builds.

Hospitality operation Linchpin is taking over several of Jon Adgemis’ former pubs. Picture: David Swift

Sydney pub baron Jon Adgemis has handed over $400,000 to creditors, as plans begin for a string of his former venues to relaunch under new management.

Sources close to Mr Adgemis said the payment to creditors had been made, as part of the first stage of a deal to settle debts from a former part of his hospitality empire tipped into administration by lenders late last year.

The cash contribution comes as the first in two instalments, with Mr Adgemis due to hand over a further $600,000 to administrators of five venues formerly within the Sydney pub baron’s Public Hospitality Group, which boasted a string of pubs, hotels and sites across Sydney and Melbourne.

A spokesman for Mr Adgemis said the payment of $400,000 to administrators, under a deed of company arrangement agreed by the pub baron and creditors, was a “substantial step”.

“I’d like to thank those involved in facilitating and approving the DOCA, and particularly the employees and suppliers who have had a difficult time in recent months,” Mr Adgemis’s spokesman said.

Under the deal with creditors, Mr Adgemis has agree to stump up $1m in cash, plus a further $6.7m in the form of a convertible note, funded by lenders ­Archibald Capital, due by September this year. These funds are expected to come from the expected refinancing of a variety of pubs and hotels owned by Mr Adgemis’ Public currently under construction or renovation.

Mr Adgemis is working closely on completion of several big builds, including a 19-room boutique hotel the Flinders in Sydney’s Darlinghurst, as well as the Exchange in Balmain and the Bondi backpackers formerly known as Noah’s.

The pub baron has also explored offloading his Melbourne pubs the Saint, the Vine and the Clifton, with sources saying the venues had been shopped around. Mr Adgemis is understood to be keen to focus on his core Sydney portfolio.

Work renovating the Vine in Collingwood is almost complete, while the Saint in St Kilda has been shut over January amid rumours of a potential split with ­celebrity chef Karen Martini, who ran the kitchens in the waterfront venue.

This comes as several of the venues previously managed by Mr Adgemis’s Public have been taken over by new hospitality operation Linchpin, run by industry figure Terry Soukoulis.

The Empire Hotel in Annandale, Sydney, is now under the control of Linchpin.

Linchpin is now overseeing the Empire Hotel in Annandale, in Sydney’s inner west, taking over the former Public venue and its two restaurants, Dale’s Pizza and Double Happy.

Renovations to the 21 boutique hotel rooms upstairs are in progress, with completion expected by March.

The group also operates Clifton Hotel and its restaurant Puttanesca, previously part of Guy Grossi’s dining empire, as well as the Lady Hampshire Hotel in Sydney’s Camperdown.

There are also plans to reopen Public’s former Bayswater Sydney Hotel as the Hotel Diplomat, alongside a string of other venues in Mr Adgemis’s stable.

The group will also take on the running of Noah’s Backpackers in Bondi after Mr Adgemis’s renovations of the 50-room-hotel are complete.

Mr Soukoulis said Linchpin was seeking to draw a line between it and Mr Adgemis’s former operations, adding that the company would operate the ­venues and only deal with the former KPMG dealmaker in a tenant-landlord relationship.

He said it was “categorically not the case” that Linchpin was a reincarnation or extension of Mr Adgemis’s former Public operation.

Mr Soukoulis has also brought on culinary figure George Calombaris to advise the business.

The former MasterChef judge is advising on the food at its several venues, after first arriving in Sydney to work on Mr Adgemis’ brief control of Greek restaurant Alpha, which was later taken over by restaurateur Con Dedes.

Mr Soukoulis said Linchpin was targeting the Sydney market as he could see what skills the various venues required.

“In Melbourne there were a slew of For Lease signs, we felt Sydney had an opportunity,“ he said.

Linchpin is backed by distressed investment adviser Damien Hodkinson and Public’s former head of operations Joanne Sproule alongside Monaco-based family office Amina Capital, represented by Marco Vettelli.

Mr Soukoulis said the group, which boasts almost 130 staff across its assets, is well positioned to plug in and take control of the former Public operations as well as assets not previously controlled by Mr Adgemis.

Revenue across the business is understood to be substantial.

Originally published as Jon Adgemis’ pays creditors, as his pubs rise from the ashes of Public Hospitality’s collapse