Balmain’s Iconic Town Hall Hotel Sold

The former Town Hall Hotel in Balmain has transacted after a 4.5-week Public Auction process to an investor with intentions of reactivating the site back into a trading hotel business.

The campaign garnered intense interest from numerous buyer segments across the market, and was sold on behalf of the Appointed Receivers Joseph Hayes and Chris Johnson of Wexted Advisors.

Whilst the building is currently vacant, the hotel has long been considered an institution amongst Balmain’s vibrant pub scene.

Last sold for $8,000,000, the hotel has sat dormant, for a number of years, after being occupied as a mixed-use development comprising a physiotherapy practice, gymnasium and bottle shop.

A Development Application was lodged and approved for the premises to be reconfigured back into a pub, and it was widely reported in October 2022 that acclaimed Italian chef Alessandro Pavoni of Crown Sydney’s a’Mare and Ormeggio at The Spit, had signed a lease to operate the business as a gastropub. Pavoni was the culinary ambassador for the Public Hospitality Group at the time.

The Hotel was launched to market last month with a DA Approval for alterations and additions to the existing building to be reconfigured back into a two-level pub. The 443 sqm* site is perched on the corner of Darling and Montague Streets, overlooking the Balmain retail precinct, and it was marketed as a veritable blank canvas with numerous alternative-use options over and above being converted back into a hotel. The site enjoys favourable and flexible planning controls which support further intensification via retail, commercial and/or residential conversion (STCA).

It is anticipated that the successful purchaser will reconfigure, renovate and refurbish the building back into a hotel, and reposition the offering in line with the nearby Dry Dock Hotel, which has enjoyed rapid and rampant success since reopening in November 2023.

The hotel was sold by Sam Handy and Andrew Jolliffe of HTL Property in conjunction with James Cowan and Matthew Meynell of Colliers.

“There have been twenty-two pub transactions concluded across the Balmain peninsula over the last fifteen years, and the agents comprising HTL Property have been fortunate enough to have negotiated some twenty of these sales” commented HTL Property Director Sam Handy.

This is a significant transaction within the Sydney pubs landscape, in that it represents one of the first hotels within the Public Hospitality Group to be publicly marketed and sold.
“Colliers are proud to transact another landmark property in Balmain, and are pleased with the rounded interest, competitive tension and the ultimate sale price achieved” James Cowan, National Director and NSW Head of Investment Services at Colliers said.

The Agents for the sale wouldn’t be drawn upon as to the final price paid, other than to advise that the successful price exceeded the market guidance and was well in excess of the prices achieved on the last three pub transactions within the catchment which were the Gary Owen Hotel ($6,500,000), London Hotel ($8,500,000) and the Dry Dock Hotel ($7,500,000).

End.

*Approx.