Byron Bay ‘Beachie’ Hotel Hits the Market for $100m

The Beach Hotel in Byron Bay will hit the market with expectations of a $100 million-plus sale.

Melbourne-based Impact Investment Group, which purchased the hotel for $70 million in 2017, will sell Byron Bay’s Beach Hotel in conjunction with long-time Byron residents and operators the van Haandel family.

It’s the second time the hotel is on the market since it was built in the 1990s by John "Strop" Cornell.

IIG purchased the hotel from businessman Max Twigg who paid $44 million for the hotel in 2007.

The business has been operated since 2007 by high-profile Melbourne restauranteurs and hospitality figures John and Lisa van Haandel.

“We’re local, we love Byron Bay, we support the community and we’re excited to bring our vision for the evolution of the Beachie to new owners, with so much scope for business growth,” general manager Elke van Haandel said.

IIGs decision to sell follows its divestment of the Kingsgate Office Tower in Brisbane for $170 million.

JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group has been appointed to sell the major Byron Bay asset.

The Beach hotel sits with 100 metres frontage to Byron’s Main Beach, and spans a 4,585sq m area, with 25 luxury boutique hotel rooms, swimming pool, a large pub with beer gardens, restaurant, function spaces and bottle shop.

The campaign will be managed by JLL’s national director John Musca, supported by JLL boutique accommodation specialist Tom Gibson and Queensland’s Tom Gleeson.

Musca described the asset as “uniquely Australian” with the national and international expressions of interest campaign to start in October and finish in November.

The popular holiday destination in northern New South Wales last month saw Syrian billionaire Ghassan Aboud’s Australian hotel business Crystalbrook purchase the Byron Bay Resort and Spa from retail mogul Gerry Harvey for $41.7 million.

Further north, the Hurley Hotel Group, led by Peter and Jenny Hurley, paid around $10 million for the two-level waterfront Ivory Tavern in Tweed Heads.

The Ivory Tavern transaction, at 156 Wharf Street spanning 8,830sq m, was managed by HTL Property.