Auctioneers confident of sale despite lack of bids

IT TOOK just two minutes and 45 seconds for The Spotted Cow – a pub loved by so many – to be passed in at auction without a single bid from the floor.

IT TOOK just two minutes and 45 seconds for The Spotted Cow - a pub loved by so many - to be passed in at auction without a single bid from the floor.

But Power Jeffrey and Co director and auctioneer Peter Power was undeterred.

"We will sell the hotel. We haven't done it today, but we will sell it," he said.

Public auction of The Spotted Cow on site, Tuesday, December 3, 2019. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Describing owners Mick and Dianne Coorey as "very genuine sellers", Mr Power said it would have been lovely to sell the pub at auction yesterday.

However, with Gladstone Hotel owner Kenneth Wagner the only registered bidder on the day, that was unlikely.

"It just means myself and Paul Fraser from CBRE Hotels, we've got to do some more work, and we've got to get it across the line, and we certainly hope we can do that before Christmas," Mr Power said.

Co-owner Mick Coorey (left) talks to Power Jeffrey and Co director Peter Power before the public auction of The Spotted Cow on site, Tuesday, December 3, 2019. Picture: Kevin Farmer

After opening the bidding to a silent, motionless audience of about 30 people, Mr Power placed a vendor bid of $2.5 million and began asking for increments of $50,000.

But at that price, Mr Wagner wasn't biting.

Mr Power placed another vendor bid of $3 million before passing in the hotel.

"We have had - and it's only in the last weeks - three people who have shown very strong interest in the hotel," Mr Power said.

"One of whom … was in touch with us at 6 o'clock this morning to say he still couldn't make it along to the auction because he's still got to line his ducks up.

"But the other parties are in very similar situations. As I said in the closing address, we will sell the hotel."

The 127-year-old pub is one of Toowoomba's best known watering holes.

The Spotted Cow will go to auction on December 3.

It was purchased by Mick and Dianne Coorey 24 years ago, but they're now ready to move on.

Mr Power described the pub as a "high-profile hotel that just needs a younger presence in there to re-energise it".

It was previously listed for sale in March but was withdrawn soon after.

"It's not a first-timer's pub by any means," Mr Power said.

"And people can see the fact that it is an underperforming asset … it just needs new blood. Simple as that."