The Imperial Hotel in Inverell, and the freehold interest in the Royal Hotel, in Tingha have been sold to the insatiable hotelier Jim Knox.
HTL Property announced the market sale of both this week, confirming Knox has fortified his New England holdings with the buy as he continues to increase his holding across the region.
"Inverell is a very strong rural economy and acts as a major service centre for an enormous rural catchment," said Xavier Plunkett of HTL Property who facilitated the two-pub deal.
"The local economy is underpinned by a strong rural sector and bolstered significantly by the Bindaree Beef abattoir, which provides over 600 stable jobs to the township."
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Mr Plunkett said Mr Knox was attracted to the highly favourable competitive environment with only three licenced hotels servicing 12,000 people.
"And the proximity to his existing portfolio assets," Mr Plunkett said.
Other significant recent sales to Mr Knox by HTL Property within the New England region have included the Whitebull Hotel in Armidale for $13.5 million and the sale of all five pubs in Moree for $28 million.
In August 2021, Mr Knox outlaid $7 million for the Royal Hotel in Moree, then a few months later he paid Sally Mishell and Gina Benson $12m million for three more - the Post Office Hotel, Victoria Hotel and Moree Hotel. The publican completed the set when he purchased the Amaroo Tavern from the Waratah Hotel Group for $ 9 million in November.
Mr Knox now has control of Moree's 63 electronic gambling machines and three bottle shops.
The unstoppable hotelier also has hotel investments in both Griffith and Grafton.
The sales of the two Inverell pubs this month bring the total number of New England Region hotels sold by HTL Property to 16 in recent times - which is about $100 million worth of sales in the region by the specialist firm.
"Our hotel deal book for the Riverina region surpassed $100 million last week, and the announcement of these two strategic acquisitions now brings the total sales for HTL in the New England region to $100m also," said HTL Property national director, Dan Dragicevich.
"This profound level of activity across two significant regional areas in NSW underwrites our view that investors will continue looking to sub-metro locations for quality opportunities," Mr Dragicevich said.
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Vanessa Arundale
Everyone has a story to tell and I like to help them do it.
Everyone has a story to tell and I like to help them do it.
