The Beach Hotel in Byron Bay, developed by Paul Hogan sidekick John Cornell, has sold for an aggressive $70 million to a Melbourne-based private equity firm backed by the wealthy Liberman family.
The vendor, racing car driver Max Twigg, vehemently denied to The Australian last week that he was selling the pub in the iconic northern NSW township, adding: “I am a happy owner, I have been for ten years.”
But it was today confirmed the hotel, overlooking Byron’s Main Beach, has sold under a long settlement agreement to Impact Investment Group, in a record-breaking deal.
A decade ago Mr Twigg paid about $44 million for the Bay Street hotel, built by Mr Cornell in 1990 for about $9 million.
It is understood to have been sold by CBRE Agents Wayne Bunz and Daniel Dragicevich.
“We’re looking forward to settling this transaction in six months’ time,” said a spokesman for Impact Investment.
“It’s a great hotel, and we’ve already made a lot of progress planning our environmental upgrades and how we’ll work with the operator and locals to deliver real positive impacts for the Byron Bay community.”
The hotel’s licensee, Melbourne restaurateur John van Haandel, has exercised his option to continue running the popular hotel under the remainder of his long-term lease arrangements.
The hotel, Byron Bay’s largest venue, hit the market mid last year with price expectations of between $75m and $80m.
Impact Investment Group has more than $400 million in funds under management. Investors include wealthy individuals, families, institutional investors, corporations and foundations.
The Melbourne-based Libermans are among Australia’s richest families, with a wealth estimated by BRW in 2015 of $2.5 billion.
Byron Bay lures the wealthy Belongil on the Beach in Byron Bay, the site of 11 separate housing blocks being put up for sale.
As internationally acclaimed Melbourne chef-restaurateur Shannon Bennett puts the finishing touches to the holiday house he’s building on Byron Bay beachside land acquired from Paul Hogan sidekick John Cornell, Ramsay Healthcare chairman Michael Siddle is renovating a house in the popular Belongil Beach strip on one of three blocks he controls.
Nearby resides Thor star Chris Hemsworth and his Spanish actress wife Elsa Pataky who made the plunge into Byron Bay three years ago after paying $7 million for a Balinese-inspired Broken Head retreat, which they prefer to their Malibu property that is now on the market.
Not to be outdone this week, Melbourne’s cashed-up Liberman family splurged $70m on one of the most famous hotels in Australia, the Byron Bay Beach Hotel, which was developed by Cornell for a mere $9m back in 1990.
As the wealthy and the powerful continue to flock to this northern NSW township, one long-term owner has listed 11 adjoining beachfront lots, after holding them tightly for at least 10 years, in one of the largest beachside land releases ever seen in the tightly held Byron Bay.
The private owner does not want to be identified but he will sell the entire 9670sq m parcel in one lot or as 11 separate housing blocks, starting in price from the low $2m range, through local agent Graham Dunn, of Graham Dunn Real Estate, Byron Bay.
“There will never be another opportunity like this for beachfront or beachside land in such a prime location,” says Dunn, who is running an expressions of interest campaign closing on November 9.
The blocks of land fronting Border and Kendall streets range from 632sq m to 1278sq m with many of the sites beachfront and all of the land vacant.
“It would not surprise me if the whole lot sold to one buyer. It would be perfect for a large family compound or part thereof, with the calibre of people coming to Byron Bay that is not unforeseen,” says Dunn, who is running a local campaign to find a buyer.
Herron Todd White director Dave Sullivan says the established Byron Bay prestige market, where prices ranged from about $1.5m to $3.5m, had sustained rapid price growth.
“It has been substantially higher than in the previous growth rate than in the time before the global financial crisis,” he says.
“The majority of buyers are from Sydney and Melbourne. Previously they had been discretionary, buying their holiday home or second home. This time around they have been purchasing and actually moving to town.
“From a security point of view, that may mean less volatility when the market slows down.”
The median price for a home in the Byron Bay area has more than doubled (up 122 per cent) in the past five years, according to CoreLogic.
Water views continue to command a premium, ranging from $3.5m to $6.5m, while the ultra-luxury Wategos Beach enclave and large rural residential properties, where former Nine boss David Gyngell had developed on the town’s fringe, exceed those prices.
Notable recent sales include the $7m transaction in May by Melbourne Sussan heiress and rich-lister Naomi Milgrom for a three-bedroom home on Lighthouse Road overlooking the bay.
She joins celebrities such as Natalie Imbruglia, Simon Baker Isabel Lucas, Gemma Ward, Xavier Rudd and Bernard Fanning, who have all purchased properties in the coastal town.
That sale, however, remains off the $15.8m record set for a home overlooking Wategos in 2006 when Sydney property developer Danny Goldberg bought Wategos House.
This year there have been seven $3m-plus sales, including $5.5m for an estate in Talofa and $4.5m for a six-bedroom home in mid-century style in the centre of Byron township.
Byron Bay Property Sales principal Jeremy Bennett, who is marketing a Wategos five-bedroom house known as The White House for $8.9m, says he gets a lot of inquiries from young families seeking a change of pace from the capital cities.
The White House’s vendors, Charlie and Angelica Arnott, of the well-known biscuit making family, paid mid-$5m for the property in 2009. The Arnotts have since renovated the property.
Bennett says there has been extensive interest in the property, adding that the multi-million-dollar “golden grid” of the old town of Byron Bay was increasingly being bought by entrepreneurs, business people and flexible workers who were able to work remotely and valued their personal and family life.
“They’re more focused on lifestyle than income,” he says.
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