Newtown's The Marlborough Hotel has been sold to Bruce Solomon and Matt Moran's hospitality group, Solotel.
“Solotel is delighted to add to the Marlborough Hotel to the existing four hotels we manage in the Newtown area. Solotel will be by the end of this year operating over 30 hospitality businesses in Sydney and Brisbane,” said Solomon.
Ray White's Asia Pacific director Andrew Jolliffe – who wouldn’t be drawn on the price paid – said the sale of the hotel followed significant local and international interest.
"Ultimately, and as we have often experienced, it was expert domestic knowledge in the form of the well-known hospitality management company Solotel, which prevailed above wide interest in order to secure this generational piece of hospitality property."
The sale of the Marlborough Hotel by the Australian Pub Fund (APF) represents the fifth sale in as many months for the unlisted group. Following the sale of the Marlborough, the Australian Pub Fund will have five pubs, three in Sydney: Kinselas in Darlinghurst, Unity Hall in Balmain and the Vic on the Park in Marrickville and two in Brisbane: the Stock Exchange and Elephant Arms.
"Consistent with our strategic objectives, we have divested a number of pubs where we feel the price the market has offered reflects the value of our assets. We will continue to apply this strategy where applicable. Our strategy of buying the best pub assets within each local market area has attracted experienced buyers to pursue the acquisition of our assets,” said Matthew Beach, director of APF.
APF CEO Andrew Gibbs said The Marlborough was a unique proposition. "The large footprint the hotel adorns, complete with multiple outdoor areas and 30 very valuable gaming machines, enabled us to significantly grow the earnings of the pub during our ownership period.”
The acquisition comes not long after Solotel’s takeover of the Clovelly Hotel.