Sydney’s Stately Empire Hotel Springs to Market with HTL Property

The popular Empire Hotel in Annandale has been listed for sale by leading national specialist pub brokerage agency, HTL Property.

The Empire Hotel formed part of the former Public Hospitality portfolio of assets. Receivers and Managers Jonathan Henry, Damien Pasfield and Kathy Sozou of McGrath Nicol were appointed to oversee the strategic divestment of five (5) assets within the portfolio – including the Empire Hotel (Annandale), Exchange Hotel (Balmain), South Bondi Hotel (Bondi Beach), Hotel Diplomat (Potts Point) and Claridge House (Darlinghurst).

The Receivers and Managers advised in October that they intended to commence an immediate sale process for some of the assets within the portfolio. HTL Property has been appointed to sell the Empire Hotel in Annandale with agents Andrew Jolliffe, Sam Handy and Dan Dragicevich steering the sale process. This follows the successful sales of three other assets within the former Public Hospitality portfolio: Kurrajong Hotel (Erskineville), Rose, Shamrock & Thistle (Paddington) and the Town Hall Hotel (Balmain).

“Investor appetite for Sydney CBD and city fringe hospitality assets has been pronounced these last twelve months, highlighting a real supply versus demand imbalance,” advised HTL Property Managing Director, Andrew Jolliffe.

The stately three level hotel is prominently positioned on the corner of Parramatta Road and Johnston Street. It is strategically positioned to directly benefit from a recent agreement between the NSW Government and Inner West Council, which will see large swathes of land in both Leichhardt and Camperdown rezoned to support the further addition of 8,000 new dwellings.

The popular pub generates approximately ~$3,700,000 in annual revenues across bar, food, gaming and accommodation departments, and operates with a 3am extended trading approval (Thursday – Saturday). There is also the benefit of 19 gaming machines licences attached to the liquor licence. The ground floor provides for a large trading footprint which currently comprises two food activations: Double Happy Chinese and Dale’s Pizza.

The upper floors of the hotel recently underwent extensive renovations. This strategic refurbishment has resulted in 21 well-appointed upmarket accommodation rooms, all with ensuite bathrooms. The Empire Hotel’s accommodation rooms are widely considered to be some of the best pub accommodation rooms in Sydney and, having only been in operation for six months, are already delivering an average of $10,000 per week in revenue.

A commercial building adjoins the hotel and, although currently vacant, has previously provided $70,000 + GST per annum in rent. There is also a telecommunications tower on the rooftop, which is leased to Optus and delivers $50,000 + GST per annum in rent.

The hotel adorns an exaggerated 803sqm site with large frontages to both Parramatta Road and Johnstone Street. Under the terms of the recent agreement between the NSW Government and Inner West Council, a ‘block by block’ analysis is proposed to be undertaken on sites along the 10km stretch of Parramatta Road between Foster Street in Leichhardt, and Booth Street in Camperdown. The purpose of this analysis will be to make planning approvals of these sites more supportive to higher density redevelopment.

“We’ve seen the marketplace gravitate towards infrastructure investment and residential growth prospects. Properties in this geographical target zone, and both scale and latent performance levers such as those available to The Empire Hotel, mirror preferred transaction fundamentals,” added HTL Property Director, Sam Handy.

HTL Property has been responsible for numerous CBD and inner city pub sales over the course of this year – most notably the Redfern Hotel (Redfern), Kurrajong Hotel (Erskineville), Rose, Shamrock & Thistle Hotel (Paddington), Fire House Hotel (North Sydney), Union Hotel (North Sydney), Agincourt Hotel (Ultimo) and Crystal Palace Hotel (Haymarket).

“We anticipate strong demand from buyers looking to deploy assigned capital sources into property-backed hospitality assets of substance and stability such as this prominent Sydney establishment,” concluded HTL Property National
Pubs Director, Dan Dragicevich.

The sale process for The Empire Hotel is being exclusively managed by HTL Property. A national Expression of Interest campaign will close at 4:00pm on Monday 8 December 2025.

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