The Mosman landmark, the Buena Vista Hotel, has changed hands just on 12 months since it last traded. The new owners, a private equity group, have installed new pub outfit The Public House Management Group, as the operator.
Agents to the deal, Ray White Hotels Australia's director Andrew Jolliffe and associate director Joel Fisher declined to comment on the price paid, but said the previous owner, Anthony Medich, paid $13 million a year ago.
Other agents speculated that a price of about $16 million was garnered, reflecting the increased demand for pubs in the suburbs, outside of the City lockout zone.
Last year, to counteract violence, city-based pubs had new alcohol laws imposed being 1.30am lockouts and 3am last-drinks laws, across the new Sydney CBD Entertainment Precinct, which stretches from parts of Surry Hills and Darlinghurst to The Rocks, and from Kings Cross to Cockle Bay.
This has resulted in sales of pubs of about $160 million year to date as buyers sell City properties and head to the suburbs.
The well-known licensed commercial property asset in Mosman has traded as a favoured watering hole for patrons north of the harbour bridge since around 1901.
Mr Medich lodged a development approval earlier this year to redesign the pub and it is undertood the new owners will proceed with the plans, once approved.
Mr Jolliffe said while typically not aggressive traders of property holdings, and by virtue of the detailed Development Application lodged with Council by Halcyon Hotels, the group, it was widely thought, would likely hold the property indefinitely.
"The Buena Vista is patently one of those hotels that enjoys almost folklore status within the hotel industry, and apart from being a fantastic business within the Mosman economic community, the property's prime and multi street-fronted position on Middle Head Rd makes it a commercial property holding of significant nature" Mr Jolliffe said.
He would would not be drawn on price, however did advise that the price achieved was notably in excess of that achieved when the hotel sold last year through another agency.
"We achieved a solid result for our client here sure, but let's be clear about the investment opportunity this irreplaceable property asset presents, particularly in a debt-market cyclical low and where cash at bank is crudely at odds with smart practice."
Mr Jolliffe said the new wave of cashed-up non-traditional pub investors reflected demand for higher yielding businesses that also offer capital growth through the bricks and mortar of the asset.
The pub, known locally as the BV, is one of only of a handful along the Military Road strip from the Oaks in Neutral Bar, the Cremorne Hotel and the Mosman Hotel at Spit Junction.
The sale comes a week after was of the Paddington institutions, the Grand National Hotel, known as the Nash, was sold for $7.25 million to an Eastern suburbs-based private investor, who is likely to join the current craze to add apartments upstairs.
The private vendor group has undertaken signifcant renovation and now decided to move to new investment opportunities.
Mr Jolliffe and Mr Fisher are also urrently marketing for sale another iconic suburban hotel and well-known watering hole in the form of Woollahra's Light Brigade Hotel on the corner of Oxford Street and Jersey Road.
