Brisbane Fund Manager Doubles Down in Central Qld

Brisbane-based Sentinel Property Group has acquired an expansive hotel and motel complex with development potential in a major Queensland mining centre

The group has paid $8 million for The Black Nugget in the centre of Moranbah, 190km west of Mackay and 1030km north of Brisbane, is the largest town by population in the Isaac Region of central Queensland.

The hotel is on a 1.7ha site at 1 Mills Avenue.

The holding comprises five buildings—the hotel, three motel buildings with 28 rooms and a manager’s house.

It includes a public sports bar, gaming room with 40 electronic gaming machines, function room, beer garden, bistro and commercial kitchen, dual lane drive-through and walk-in bottle shop, and back-of-house areas. 

The hotel licence includes a detached bottle shop in the nearby Moranbah Fair Shopping Centre, of which Sentinel is the trustee.

Sentinel Property Group, established in 2010, focuses on commercial and industrial property trusts. The group holds a diverse range of assets across commercial, industrial and retail sectors.

The Black Nugget is the sixth property in the Sentinel Northern Australia Investment Fund, which includes assets in Mackay, Darwin and Adelaide.

Chief executive Warren Ebert said the hotel investment market had been strong in the past 24 months, underpinned by demand from property trusts, syndicates and high net-worth private investors.

“This demand has been particularly evident in the sale of freehold investment hotels which have witnessed yield compression for strong lease covenants,” Ebert said.

▲ Moranbah Fair Shopping Centre, which is also owned by Sentinel.

“Venues which have large landholdings, strong gaming revenue and potential to add value through restructure of management have attracted the most attention.”

Ebert said the strategic acquisition had been the result of the region’s strong economy underpinned by Australia’s essential industries including mining and agriculture.

The Isaac Region generates over $22 billion per annum with a gross regional product per capita greater than six times that of Queensland.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the region's median weekly incomes are 56 per cent greater than Queensland’s median weekly incomes. 

Sentinel said a highly experienced hotel motel corporate group would now take on the Black Nugget’s leasehold under a 20-year triple net lease.