A private Taiwanese family has snapped up a brand new freestanding 60 room hotel within the heart of Darling Harbour, for $28.7 million from IGB.
Located at 131-133 Murray Street, Pyrmont, the 100 percent freehold property sits on a 280sq m site, with a nine level building with 60 guest rooms and suites, together with appropriate front and back of house facilities.
The hotel was sold unencumbered by management, meaning there is considerable flexibility over the eventual market positioning, brand and operating structure. With a gross floor area of approximately 1,134sq m and B4 Mixed Use zoning, the height limit is approximately 28.87 metres.
The hotel was sold by Jordan Lee, Andy Hu and Michael Simpson of Savills Australia who said the Pyrmont Peninsular is a significant commercial precinct of the Sydney business landscape with high profile occupants such as Google, Accenture, Fairfax, Reuters, American Express, IBM, Veolia, John Hollard Group, ACMA, Network Ten and radio stations such as Nova 96.9, 2SM and Classic Rock 95.3 in addition to a number of major advertising agencies.
According to Jordan Lee, Joint State Head, Asia Markets at Savills Australia, Pyrmont is a primary choice for those who like to be close to their CBD located clients but would like themselves to be out of that environment. It is approximately a 1.5km harbour side walk over to the city centre and even less to Darling Harbour, Cockle Bay Wharf or King Street Wharf.
“Darling Harbour is an integral part of Sydney and currently home to two of the largest infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the city - the international Convention Centre and Barangaroo redevelopment. Other notable surrounding demand drivers include The Star Casino, Chinatown, numerous commercial office buildings, and many of Sydney’s key leisure destinations.”
According to Andy Hu, Joint State Head, Asia Markets at Savills Australia, “Sydney is one of the most sought after hotel investment destinations in Asia Pacific and is now considered comparable with other international gateway cities including New York, Paris, London and Hong Kong.
“We received a lot of local and offshore interest in this site, given the safe haven environment of Sydney CBD and fringe sites within walking distance to tourist attractions, such as The Star Casino, Darling Harbour, Chinatown, Barangaroo and the Light Rail”.
Michael Simpson, Managing Director, Hotels at Savills Australia said the interest received and pricing achieved was testament to the significant amount of pent-up capital seeking investment grade hotels in Sydney.
“The flexibility of being suitable for owner-operators, or being able to select your preferred operator also drove investor interest.
“Despite having seen some very low transaction volumes in the Sydney hotel market for some time, quality offerings like this continue to attract interest from domestic and global capital which has been unsatisfied due to a shortage of available investment grade hotels for sale in Australia.
“This year, we expect to see owners taking advantage of these market dynamics and seek to realise some profit on their hotel holdings”.
Learn more about Savills Hotels and Savills Asia Markets services.