BILLIONAIRE pub baron Arthur Laundy is offloading one of his Hunter region assets.
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East Maitland's the Bank Hotel, which is owned by Laundy Hotels, is listed for sale with HTL Property's Blake Edwards and Daniel Dragicevich.
The hotel includes 29 gaming entitlements and is expected to fetch upwards of $20 million.
"We are looking at offers above $20 million," Mr Edwards said.
"We think interest will come from the Newcastle and Hunter region area, from local investors, and also from Sydney."
Expressions of interest close on May 31.
Mr Laundy purchased the Bank Hotel in 2019 from the Clancy family for a figure understood to be close to $10 million as part of a buyer consortium that included local operator Nick Quinn.
Mr Quinn previously co-owned the Windsor Castle Hotel in East Maitland which was sold off-market last year for an inland regional record of $51 million.
Mr Laundy's portfolio spans more than 90 pubs, including The Tea Gardens Hotel.
The sale of The Bank Hotel is being managed by HTL Property on behalf of Mr Quinn.
"The vendor, who has been an active purchaser over the past few years, is divesting some of its smaller assets in order to free up management capacity for several of their new acquisitions," Mr Dragicevich said.
The property occupies a 2346 square metre site at 72 Melbourne Street and offers a bar, a bistro, a gaming room, a functions room and a children's playground in the beer garden.
There are 40 on-site car parks, a 1.30am licence from Thursday to Saturday, and a DA for a full refurbishment of the gaming room and other parts of the ground floor.
Mr Edwards said the hotel would appeal to investors as Maitland is the second fastest-growing regional LGA in terms of population growth.
The listing follows a string of pub sales in the region by HTL Property, including the recent transaction of the Lambton Park Hotel which was owned by Riversdale group.
The buyer is an investor from Sydney.
The Riversdale group, representing John Singleton, Mark Carnegie and Geoff Dixon, bought the pub in mid-2018 for $5.9 million.
Prior to the sale, the vendor sold off all of its gaming entitlements and Mr Edwards said the business had pivoted towards a traditional food and beverage business model.
The agent said the hotel attracted interest from more than 40 potential buyers during the campaign.
The sale price is undisclosed however, market sources have indicated that the pub sold for around $2.5 million.
"This transaction not only highlights the residual strength of the pub sector generally but also that food and beverage assets, anchored by high-value commercial real estate platforms, are still high-demand assets," Mr Edwards said.
It joins HTL Property's sale of a number of Newcastle pubs in the past 12 months including the Beach Hotel in Merewether, The Sunnyside Tavern in Broadmeadow, The Northumberland Hotel in Lambton, Mayfield's Beauford Hotel and the Commonwealth Hotel in Cooks Hill which was purchased by hotel industry veterans Ashton Waugh and Ben Lawler in January for a figure that market sources understand to be around $21 million.
In the Hunter region, HTL Property brokered the sale of Weston's Criterion Hotel to a Central Coast-based publican for around $8.5 million in March.
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