Billionaire Roche family offloads coastal gem as summer hits

Pubs are about to reap the rewards of holiday spending and a well-known family has just pocketed $10m from selling a popular Irish-themed Queensland property.

The Friend In Hand Hotel, Glebe. Source: Google Maps

The billionaire Roche family has sold off the pub in their Calypso Bay waterfront housing estate on the Gold Coast as interest in coastal hotels surges.

With a lift in domestic tourism expected this summer, they have capitalised by selling the Irish-themed Harrigan’s Calypso Bay, after running it for 17 years.

The Roche Group has grown into one of the country’s top developers, and has a portfolio of larger residential, tourism and agricultural properties. It had wanted to sell the $10m pub to focus on bigger assets.

Imelda Roche, valued at $1.44bn on The Australian’s The List, and her late husband Bill made their fortune from the Nutrimetics business they launched in Australia in 1968 and later took global. Family assets now include property developments and tourism holdings such as the large Hunter Valley Gardens in NSW.

The waterfront Calypso Bay and adjoining developments at Cameron Park, as well as Harrington Waters Estate on NSW’s Mid-North Coast, take its pipeline to more than 10,000 residential blocks.

The pub was picked up by Ric Adams, a private hotelier who owns and operates the Central Hotel in Gladstone.

“With a terrific building structure and outlook the hotel will only require a cosmetic refresh, which will include the food and beverage offer. Harrigan’s name will remain with the vendor, so rebranding will form part of the refresh,” Mr Adams said. “We aim for our refresh to embrace the beauty of Moreton Bay but also the surrounding farm lands.”

Harrigan’s at Calypso Bay.

Harrigan’s Calypso Bay is a rare waterfront location, with the large-format pub sporting multiple bars, bistro, outdoor dining and function spaces, as well as a gaming room with 11 gaming machine authorities, and three detached bottle shop licences.

The sale of Harrigan’s was managed by HTL Property agents Xavier Plunkett, and Glenn Price.

Mr Plunkett said the campaign attracted more than 10 formal offers from local and interstate buyers, private hoteliers and institutions. Mr Price expects the local management team to boost the property, with more sales to come.

“The sale of this unique waterfront hospitality asset follows a collection of other southeast Queensland sales we … will shortly disclose to the market,” HTL Property managing director Andrew Jolliffe said.

The agency last week sold Cabarita Beach Hotel, which Mr Jolliffe said underscored the as yet unsatisfied demand for A-grade coastal hotel assets nationally. It has another $100m worth of southeast Queensland hotel sales to unveil before year end.

In Sydney, the firm also handled the sale of historic inner city watering hole the Friend in Hand Hotel in Glebe, with the property trading for the third time in six years.

Gerry Murphy and Tim Hartnett celebrating St Patricks Day at Harrigan's Irish Pub in Calypso Bay.

It was sold by Momento Hospitality, which acquired the hotel in an off-market deal back in 2021 from Young Family Hotels. It was Momento’s third inner city pub play. It also bought the Royal Albert Hotel in Surry Hills and the Nags Head Hotel in Forest Lodge.

The Glebe pub sold to the Ray Reilly-led Riley Group, which owns a burgeoning stable of Sydney inner west hotels including the Sydney Park Hotel in Newtown, Henson Park Hotel in Marrickville, the White Cockatoo Hotel in Petersham and the London Hotel and Cricketers Arms Hotel, both in Balmain.

Originally published as Billionaire Roche family offloads coastal gem as summer hits