AFL players team up for pub deal in Melbourne’s west
Mona Castle Group, backed by former and current Western Bulldogs AFL players, has snapped up the Spotswood Hotel in Melbourne’s west, adding a third venue to its portfolio amid a bumper year for pub deals.
The pub group is run by Lukas Webb – who played for the AFL side from 2014 to 2019 – along with Nicholas Schultze and Bradley Olsson, all of whom met through the footy club as well as its investors.
The group’s backers include ex-Bulldogs player Jack Redpath, who played 36 games for the club from 2012 to 2016, and current midfielder Tom Liberatore. They both hold stakes in the company’s pub portfolio which includes the Mona Castle Hotel in Seddon and the Ascot Vale Hotel in Ascot Vale.
On his 250th game this year, Liberatore shouted 250 Pirate Life beers at both venues.
The transaction, for an undisclosed price, adds to a bumper year already in pub trades. More than $1.7 billion of pubs, bars and nightclubs had changed hands by the end of September, ahead of the annual average, as investors, from family-run groups to fund managers, scramble to take control of country’s best venues.
The Spotswood Hotel in the suburb of Spotswood has an open-plan layout with a sit-down dining area, public bar, an all-weather courtyard with retractable awnings, and a large beer garden at its rear. Nick Grigoriadis, who operates the Royal Melbourne Hotel in the CBD, has operated the pub for about five years.
Mona Castle Group’s Bradley Olsson said the group believed Melbourne’s west has untapped potential for investment into pubs, especially compared to inner-city suburbs on the other side of town such as South Yarra, Richmond and South Melbourne where high-profile hospitality venues proliferate.
“We still think there’s massive growth in the area and that’s why we’ve never jumped across the bridge,” he told The Australian Financial Review.
“The West has got a pretty old school approach and the way they support the VFL and [Mission] Whitten Oval and the whole connection there, it’s a massive community base which works with the pubs really well.”
The new owners of the Spotswood Hotel aim to get to know the venue, its staff and its clientele before pursuing any change. They have purchased the existing business at the pub as well, whereas their two previous investments were struck on vacant possession.
“We’re really excited about the challenge of taking over an existing business, but we do feel like we will be able to give the venue a bit of growth with the personality and then the style that we offer,” Olsson said.
The group loved local and residential pubs, making Spotswood Hotel a good fit for the group’s growing portfolio, he said.
“For us as a group, we’re trying to essentially create country pubs in the city with an old school focus on our service and offering and what we believe a pub should really be,” he said.
In 2019, the three owners opened the Ascot Vale Hotel and two years later, purchased the Mona Castle Hotel. Both were renovated and reopened.
JLL’s Will Connolly, who managed the sales campaign, said the Spotswood Hotel was a classic neighbourhood pub which was what the Mona Castle Group specialised in.
“What is pretty rare in a Melbourne suburb, [Spotswood] essentially is a one pub suburb,” he told the Financial Review. “I think that Mona Castle Group identified that and certainly will take advantage of it.”
