The Port Macquarie Hotel has sold for the record price of at least $50 million.
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"It is double the purchase price of any other North Coast hospitality asset ever," HTL Property managing director Andrew Jolliffe said.
HTL Property was tasked with selling the hotel, along with Tacking Point Tavern on behalf of the Taphouse Group. Negotiations for the sale of Tacking Point Tavern are continuing.
The agency declined to reference the exact price paid, or identify the established hotelier who bought the Port Macquarie Hotel.
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However, Mr Jolliffe confirmed the new owner was based in NSW and market guidance was achieved.
In April the agency gave the collective sale estimate of $100 million for both entities.
Mr Jolliffe said the new owner of the Port Macquarie Hotel has a considerable existing portfolio.
"They aren't Port Macquarie-based but are familiar with the area," he said.
"A highly regarded and well established hotelier."
Mr Jolliffe said he couldn't specifically say what the new owner had planned for the hotel.
"Our expectation is it will be business as usual," he said.
"That's the profile of the operator that the new owner is, in terms of just enhancing existing structures and existing business models, which they've done successfully on multiple occasions elsewhere."
The Taphouse Group has owned the Port Macquarie Hotel for the past 11 years.
The sale comes after Port Macquarie's Mercure Centro Hotel sold in March.
About 50 prospective Port Macquarie Hotel buyers were part of the Expressions of Interest process in May, which drew activity from a national investor landscape.
"[It] highlighted the magnetism of multi-revenue faceted hotels in key geographical centres along Australia's East Coast," HTL property director Sam Handy said.
The Port Macquarie-Hastings Council population forecast for 2022 is 88,969, but just there are just eight hotels which serve the local area.
"On a ratio basis, in comparison to other places, [Port Macquarie LGA] is arguably 'under-pubbed'," Mr Jolliffe said.
"It has arguably one of the most attractive LGAs in the state for that reason and because of the prospects for future population growth."
According to HTL Property, Port Macquarie Hotel and Tacking Point Tavern achieve $25m in revenue per annum between them.
History
The Port Macquarie Hotel was established in 1939 and is heritage listed.
In 1970, Hotel Macquarie (now the Port Macquarie Hotel) and the Royal Hotel-Motel were snapped up by Mainline Corporation for redevelopment as a motel, shops and bottle shop.
At the time, the new manager of the two hotels Tom Abberton, said Port Macquarie can now look forward to having a really dynamic tourist attraction in the heart of town.
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