Crocodile Farm Hotel to set market alight

On behalf of the Trustees, JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group and HTL Property are jointly offering the Crocodile Farm Hotel, Ashfield for sale by Expression of Interest closing Wednesday 26 October 2022. Offered for the first time in history, the highly coveted asset is expected to draw significant interest from an acquisitive investor set led by some of the most prominent hoteliers in the country.

The Crocodile Farm Hotel is strategically located in the heart of the Ashfield high street retail precinct at the main entrance to Ashfield Mall Shopping Centre. Benefitting from the huge volume of customer traffic to the Woolworths, Coles, Aldi and Kmart anchor-tenanted complex, the hotel is situated in what is affectionately known as ‘Little Shanghai’ encompassing Asian restaurants, grocers and retail shops fronting Liverpool Road.

“Robust assets with long histories of profit generation such as this one are as rare as they are keenly sought; and the hotel’s proximity to multiple patronage generators provides confidence regarding sustainable footfall,” advised HTL Property Managing Director, Andrew Jolliffe.

With the most attractive 24-hour trading approvals possible, including 3-hour weekend shutdowns, the hotel includes 30 gaming machines, public and gaming room bars, first floor restaurant and bar. The B4 mixed-use zoned site with 23m building height limit also espouses future development potential, subject to council approvals. The hotel is a sought-after Top 100 ranked business with a history of Top 50 performance and offers genuine scope to reconfigure and improve its gaming and wagering offering to drive business performance.

The sale comes on the back of recent spate of metropolitan hotel sales including the Longueville Hotel circa $50m, Bar Broadway $36m and the Earlwood Hotel for $46m.

“Capital application to the hotel asset class shows no signs of abatement with demand continuing to outstrip asset supply from a range of equity profiles, amidst a trajectory of rapid industry consolidation”, suggested JLL Hotels Managing Director, John Musca.

Presenting as the real estate and business investment sector of choice nationally, the hotel market has seen in excess of $2 billion of transactions in the past 12 months with yield outcomes seemingly maintained, when compared to other property asset classes where signs of debt-driven yield dilution are emerging.

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