Laundy Snaps Up Second Port Macquarie Pub

Veteran pub owner Arthur Laundy has picked up his second pub in regional NSW this year after partnering again with local publican Alistair Flower to acquire the Tacking Point Tavern in Port Macquarie for about $45 million.

The acquisition of the 6700sq m Mid-North Coast hotel marks the fifth acquisition for the billionaire Laundy family outside metropolitan Sydney, its usual stomping ground.    

In March, the family paired with Flower Hotels for their $250-million acquisition of Port Macquarie’s Mercure Centro Hotel and also acquired the Jack Duggans Irish Pub in the main street of Bathurst, paying $6.5 million.

Late last year the Laundys picked up the historic Bayview Hotel at Woy Woy on the Central Coast for $38 million after purchasing the Lennox Hotel near Byron Bay for more than $40 million early in 2021.

The Tacking Point Tavern was sold by HTL Property on behalf of Taphouse—run by the co-founders and families of the formerly listed direct marketing and communications company Salmat, Peter Mattick and his late business partner Phil Salter.

The large format pub underwent a $10-million renovation in 2018 and offers 270-degree onsite parking. It is next to the Lighthouse Plaza Shopping Centre—a retail precinct within an exclusive neighbourhood trading catchment.

HTL would not confirm the price paid for the Tacking Point Tavern, other than to confirm the agency’s market guidance was again achieved.

Laundy and Flower said they would continue to consider opportunities where they could add value in the Mid-North Coast growth area and said there were still good buying opportunities despite increased competition for assets, which was forcing yields down and prices up.

“We recently acquired the Mercure Hotel in Port Macquarie with Alistair, and look forward to furthering our family’s relationship with him via this next exciting purchase,” Laundy said.

“We will continue to look at opportunities both in capital cities and in regional centres in order to grow our family business, and to leverage the experience and scale we’ve built over three generations.”

▲ The Mattick and Salter family’s Taphouse Group banked $57 million from the Port Macquarie Hotel earlier this year.

The sale comes three weeks after Taphouse offloaded the Port Macquarie Hotel to a Sydney operator for a regional-record $57 million.

Both pubs, which bring in annual revenue of $25 million, were listed for sale in April.

“I’ve admired the successful way in which the Mattick family and their partners have conducted various successful businesses over the years, and they have been an absolute pleasure to deal with regarding this transaction,” Laundy said.

Earlier this year, Laundy’s daughter Danielle Richardson with husband Shane paid $13 million for the Orana Hotel at Blacksmiths, near Newcastle.

The Laundy family, with a net worth of $1.4 billion, now own more than 70 hotels in NSW and Queensland.

Since pubs reopened after shutting down around throughout the pandemic, major metropolitan venues and more pubs in regional and coastal towns have changed hands at eye-watering prices as investors, offshore groups and publicans pour money into the asset class.

The sale of the Tacking Point Tavern by HTL Property brings the agency’s total volume of NSW prime pub sales this calendar year to date to more than $800 million.

A record breaking $2 billion-worth of pubs changed hands in 2021 with investors taking a long-term view on the sector.

Long viewed by many investors as trophy assets, pubs offer attractive core investment fundamentals such as being situated on large sites in sought-after metropolitan and regional locations that underpin capital value growth,

They also provide steady and growing rental income through long “set and forget” triple net leases to quality tenants who will often spend millions to upgrade and improve the venues to attract patrons.