Pub veteran Laundy sells $30m proposed hotel site at Cobbity

Capital Gain

Rich lister and pub veteran Arthur Laundy has sold a greenfield development site in Sydney’s south-west that will eventually become the Oxley Ridge Tavern.

Joel Fisher’s Monarch group paid close to $30 million for the site at Cobbity.

Arthur Laundy at the Red Lion pub in Rozelle.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Originally acquired in a joint venture partnership by the Cottle, Laundy and Wearn families, the approved hotel development will take shape later this year.

Laundy has many projects in the west and south-west of Sydney and is also building an empire of accommodation hotels on the NSW central coast and on the Gold Coast in Queensland.

The family will deploy the capital from the Oxley sale to other projects.

The Oxley Ridge Tavern development will follow the playbook of Monarch’s hugely successful Willowdale Hotel. Since it was developed by Monarch in 2023, its earnings from pokies have shot up from number 339 in June 2023 to number 36 by December 2025, cementing it as one of Sydney’s premier large format gaming, food and beverage venues.

The development of the Oxley Ridge Tavern will be Monarch’s fifth recent greenfield hotel development. Other successful hospitality projects by Monarch include Shellharbour’s Central Hotel, Willowdale Hotel, Brisbane’s Flagstone Tavern (where HTL recently sold the leasehold to Redcape), and the award-winning Waterfront Tavern (Shell Cove) developed in 2021 in a joint venture with Frasers Property.

Andrew Jolliffe and Dan Dragicevich from HTL negotiated the Oxley Ridge deal.

Double Bay

The redevelopment of what is currently InterContinental Hotel Double Bay into a new venue at 33 Cross Street, in Sydney’s upmarket Double Bay, is expected to be completed in two years.

The project, spearheaded by Capitel Group’s managing director Eduard Litver and Rebel Property Group managing director Allen Linz, will create a mixed-use building with high-end retail and dining, a boutique luxury hotel, office suites, a health and wellness centre, and 29 residences.

The project’s end value is estimated at $1 billion. It is one of a number of large projects taking shape in the exclusive precinct led by developer Fortis and backed by Pallas Capital.

Cross Street’s redevelopment will create a new 40-room boutique hotel, three cinemas, office spaces and new public zones. The Cox Architecture-designed project on the 3674 square metre site will be led by development managers Metis Group.

Capitel Group’s Eduard Litver said the scheme would reinvigorate the blue-ribbon waterfront suburb. The Intercontinental will continue to be run by hotel managers IHG until demolition starts sometime next year.

Freecity settles

Private developer Freecity Group has settled on its second significant site within Sydney Olympic Park which it estimates will be worth $1.5 billion upon completion. The site, at 3 Figtree Drive with additional land at 6 Herb Elliott Avenue, was acquired from the listed GPT Group in June 2023.

The purchase will make Freecity one of the largest landholders in Sydney Olympic Park Town Centre Core, with a two-hectare site adjacent to the Metro station site.

The combined sites offer a potential 30,000 square metres of commercial and retail development space and 150,000 square metres of residential or living sector assets offering more than 2000 dwellings, all of which is subject to development approval.

These residential dwellings will be a mix of build-to-rent, co-living, and built-to-sell apartments. Freecity has portfolio of over $4.6 billion in mixed-use and residential projects.

Surplus land

The NSW government has sold close to $25 million worth of properties in a public auction of surplus land.

The properties were mainly earmarked for residential developments of different sizes. One site at 1-9 Cardigan Street in Stanmore was a 1079 square metre vacant land block. It sold through Knight Frank’s Anthony Pirrottina for $5.3 million to a private developer.

Another block at 164 Talavera Road in Marsfield, also vacant, was 2119 square metres in size and fetched $4.4 million. Ray White Commercial Western Sydney handled the auction for the government.

Carolyn Cummins can be contacted on [e-mail].

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