The Gem Hotel is on Banna Avenue. Photo: Gem Hotel Facebook.
Pub baron Jim Knox has listed Griffith’s Gem Hotel for sale, with reports that it could fetch around $50 million.
The sale campaign is being managed by hotel brokerage firm HTL Property, which recently oversaw the sale of Wagga’s iconic Murrumbidgee Mill.
The Gem Hotel sale will be of the freehold property (land and buildings) and the business operating on the property, including the 65-room hotel, Bull & Bell steak restaurant and a bar with its 29 poker machine entitlements.
Described as a “trophy-grade” asset by HTL Property, the hotel is believed to be the highest performing and most profitable pub sent to market in the Riverina.
The Australian Financial Review (AFR) reports Mr Knox is hoping to fetch $50 million for it.
“The hotel had been benchmarked against some of the largest hotel sales outside the capital cities, including the Robin Hood Hotel in Orange (sold for $47.4 million), the Windsor Castle in Maitland (sold for $50.5 million) and the Port Macquarie Hotel in Port Macquarie (sold for $53 million),” HTL Property said in a statement.
Mr Knox’s decision to offload the Gem comes just a year after he sold the neighbouring Area Hotel for $30 million to local entrepreneur Trent Middleton, reportedly more than three times the price he paid for it in 2019.
The Area Hotel was sold for $30 million last year. Photo: Oliver Jacques.
“I have been a long-term investor in Griffith and the Riverina, with our irrigation and civil earthmoving operations, and it is just a town that never goes backwards,” he told the AFR.
“We have slowly been working towards moving our business interests back to the Northern Tablelands, where we live. That is what prompted the sale last year of the Area Hotel.”
Mr Knox also owns Watertek, an irrigation and plumbing supplies business on Griffith’s Battista Street.
The 2547 sqm Gem Hotel includes:
- 65 four-star hotel rooms with high occupancy and premium rates
- 29 poker machine entitlements and extended 3 am trading, which places it among the top five gaming venues in regional NSW
- Bull & Bell, a multiple award-winning, AGFG hatted steakhouse, which was recently named a top 100 steakhouse globally
- Paul Kelly-designed interiors throughout the entire venue
- Annual revenues exceeding $13 million, driven by high-margin gaming and accommodation departments.
HTL Property’s Xavier Plunkett said the Gem offered a big opportunity for investors.
“Griffith, located in the Riverina region, is considered an economic powerhouse, with a gross regional product of $2.7 billion and key industries spanning viticulture, agriculture, food processing, and manufacturing,” Mr Plunkett said.
“The city’s remarkably strong diversification across many agricultural sectors and industries essentially insulates it from market volatility in any single sector.”
HTL Property’s Andrew Jolliffe said Griffith’s economy, defined by “full employment, high household incomes, significant government and private infrastructure investment, and a large itinerant workforce” would attract “the most astute hospitality operators”.
“Our firm has been involved in the sale of in excess of $200m worth of regional hospitality assets nationally over the past month,” Mr Jolliffe said.
“The Gem presents as maybe the most exciting regional hotel asset we’ve ever been engaged to represent.”
The property will be offered via expressions of interest, closing 31 July unless sold prior.
For enquiries, contact HTL Property on 02 9136 6373.
