Melbourne pub from Jon Adgemis’ collapsed empire returns to the market
Nicole Lindsay
Capital Gain
One of the three Melbourne pubs swept up in the spectacular collapse of Jon Adgemis’ pub empire is back on the market again.
The Clifton Hotel on Kew Junction was controlled by the former KPMG high-flyer’s Public Hospitality Group. Adgemis collected a portfolio of 22 pubs, most of them in Sydney, before he was forced into bankruptcy last October owing $1.8 billion.
His affairs and playboy lifestyle came under forensic examination in the Federal Court in Sydney last week following his group’s disastrous implosion.
Last year, receivers listed the Kew hotel for sale at between $7 million and $8 million, but that was when the pub was still operating. It closed last year for maintenance and hasn’t reopened since.
Luckily, the two billboards above the roof, leased to 2031, are bringing in some cash.
HTL’s Scott Callow, Daniel Ryan and Andrew Jolliffe have the listing but declined to provide a price guide for the pub which is being offered on a freehold or leasehold basis. The venue features an open-plan kitchen with a wood-fired pizza oven, bars, a private boardroom/dining space and an outdoor terrace.
It’s across the road from the four-tower project that Orchard Piper and James Packer’s NPACT group are aiming to build on the former Leo’s Fine Food & Wine supermarket site.
Plans have been drawn up for a seven-level hotel to be built above the pub, but local laws now allow for up to 12 levels at the junction, so a property developer may be the likeliest buyer.
Records show Adgemis’ Public Hospitality Group paid $6.8 million for the pub in July 2021 and scored a high-profile tenant in Guy Grossi’s Puttanesca Osteria. But that was a short-lived venture.
The title shows three mortgages and five caveats over the property. The same number of mortgages and caveats cover another of Adgemis’ pubs, The Vine Hotel in Collingwood.
Last year, the shelf company which owned the empty pub in Collingwood appeared to have gone unnoticed by Adgemis’ corporate undertakers.
Records show Adgemis’ shell company, The Vine At Collingwood Pty Ltd, which paid $4.75 million in November 2021 for the hotel, was deregistered in May. The hotel must surely be next on the sales list?
The pub on the corner of Derby Street at 59 Wellington Street is next to Gurner’s Victoria & Vine apartment project. Sure there’s a fancy health club in there, but a pub downstairs is a no-brainer.
Some reports suggest Adgemis was trying to install a George Calombaris restaurant in the pub.
Public Hospitality’s third Melbourne venue was the Saint Hotel on Fitzroy Street, St Kilda, which boasted a short-lived Karen Martini restaurant.
It sold at auction shortly before Christmas to the Kokoda Group for $8.4 million. Sales of the 22-hotel portfolio have so far yielded about $80 million.
Tidy profit
BWP, the listed trust which owns 66 Bunnings Warehouses around Australia, has splashed out $25.5 million on the Sunbury Lifestyle Centre.
The vendor, Kinglake, made a tidy profit on the property which it bought just 18 months ago for $19.6 million. The deal reflected a tight yield of 5.2 per cent.
The 5554-square-metre centre is on a 12,140 sq m site at 85 Vineyard Road, next door to the local Bunnings. Tenants included The Good Guys, Repco, Total Tools and Petstock.
The move is part of BWP’s strategy to diversify its income from the purely Bunnings stream and gives the trust control over a 4.78-hectare chunk of land.
According to BWP’s recently reported annual results, it derives 67 per cent of rental income from Bunnings Warehouses and 16 per cent from standalone LFR centres. About 12 of its portfolio of 82 properties are large-format centres.
Colliers agents Tim McIntosh and Will Heffernan, with Stonebridge’s Justin Dowers, Rorey James and Kevin Tong did the deal.
The property attracted 13 first-round offers from local and interstate private investors, syndicates and institutional buyers and five second-round bids, McIntosh said.
Jewellery shop
The former Kozminsky jewellery shop on Bourke Street, once tipped to be the new home of the Hopetoun Tearooms, is back on the market, vacant.
Built in 1859, the 380 sq m property is on the corner of McKillop Street next door to Cbus Property’s new tower at 435 Bourke Street which will feature two restaurants owned by Chris Lucas.
There were grand plans for the Hopetoun Tearooms to occupy the entire three-storey building at 421 Bourke Street, but they never came to fruition.
The Bourke Street building last changed hands in 2019 for $7.6 million, when the Bellesis family, which runs auto plastics moulding business Socobell, bought it from the Giannarelli family.
It was the same price the Giannarellis paid in 2017 when the 165-year-old jeweller, Kozminsky, closed after more than 40 years on Bourke Street. The building has been vacant for nearly 10 years.
Colliers’ agents Christian Hatzis, Matt Stagg and Ryan Milivojac are running an off-market invitation-only process for the building and expect more than $7 million.
Investors and hospitality groups are expected to make a play for the property which is in the heart of a new corporate precinct.
Fast food
With the fast-food market growing at speed, it’s no surprise investors are hotly pursuing takeaway joints.
Last week, a new flagship Nando’s in Cranbourne North sold for $5.84 million, reflecting a yield of 5.3 per cent.
An interstate investor snapped up the new strata outlet which is in Oreana’s WT Business Park, alongside KFC and Zambrero.
Stonebridge agent Rorey James, who did the deal with Kevin Tong, said five of their last six buyers in this sector were from interstate.
“So many interstate buyers are seeing value in Victoria. They’re taking a long-term view,” James said.
Other recent deals include the Mount Waverley Red Rooster which fetched $6.47 million with a 4.84 per cent yield and a KFC in Clayton, which is understood to have sold for a price reflecting a 4.5 per cent yield.
The Cranbourne outlet is on a large 1141 sq m site with drive-through facilities and returning $309,585 a year in rent. A new 15-year lease has options out to 2060.
In Box Hill, an El Jannah charcoal chicken shop sold at auction for $4.55 million on a yield of 5.38 per cent.
It’s a bullish result for the 648 sq m shop at 422 Station Street which is south of Box Hill’s CBD near the corner of Canterbury Road.
It’s in a small block of strip retail with no drive-through capacity but a long 20-year lease.
Six bidders made a play for the shop, which sold to a local investor.
JLL’s Dominic McGrath, Romanor Falconer, and MingXuan Li handled the auction.
“We saw traditional fast-food investors competing alongside private buyers making their first acquisition,” Falconer said.
New research from Roy Morgan shows 19.2 million Australians (that’s 82.5 per cent of us) ate takeaway food last year – an increase of 6.7 per cent since 2021-22 – with Millennials the biggest consumers.
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