Fanatics founder and publican sells Sydney venue for $40m
Warren Livingstone, a publican and the founder of sports tourism company Fanatics, has sold one of his venues in Sydney’s north-west for about $40 million, more than three times what he paid for it only three years ago.
Through his company Highclere Hospitality, Livingstone offloaded the Australian Hotel in McGraths Hill, for which he had paid $12 million in 2022. Since then, he has completed an extensive renovation of the pub.
Straddling two titles and spanning nearly 6000 square metres, the venue has several car parks, a drive-through liquor store, outdoor areas, and 30 gaming machine entitlements. Weekly revenue exceeds $175,000 from its food, beverage, gaming and bottle shop departments.
The McGraths Hill sale is the latest in a run of pub transactions across Sydney, including the sale of embattled pub baron Jon Adgemis’ Kurrajong Hotel for about $20 million, the De Angelis family’s Bath Arms Hotel in Burwood for $43 million and hotelier Mark Barry’s Firehouse Hotel in North Sydney to Sonnel Hospitality. HTL Property and JLL brokered the latest deal.
HTL’s Dan Dragicevich said the Australian Hotel had been transformed into a high-performing suburban hospitality asset.
“Its sale underlines the continued appetite for quality large-format pubs in Sydney’s growth corridors,” he said. “There has been a noticeable increase in buyer engagement and transactional activity, resulting in clear yield compression in recent months and we expect a busy period to finish the year.”
JLL’s Kate MacDonald said: “Warren has done an outstanding job repositioning the venue during his tenure and the value accretion he has now crystallised is testament to his foresight and operational expertise.”
Livingstone is also the founder of Fanatics Australia, which he formed in 1997 to foster sports fans’ passion for local and international sport. Through the Fanatics website, sports lovers purchase tour packages to see events for the EPL, the NRL and cricket, among other sports.
Outside the sports tourism company, Livingstone has a portfolio of five venues across NSW through Highclere Hospitality: the Alpine Inn in Khancoban, Charing Cross Hotel in Waverley, Hyde Park House and Slims Rooftop in Darlinghurst, and Rose & Crown in Parramatta.
He sold the Captain Cook Hotel in Botany, in Sydney’s south, for about $35 million in June last year – more than double the $17 million he paid for it in 2020, although that pub had also been extensively renovated through his tenure.
In 2022, Livingstone snapped up the Rose & Crown hotel for $42 million from Damian Kelly’s Peak Invest pub fund before it was liquidated following a dispute between Kelly and its major shareholders.
