North Sydney’s Firehouse Hotel in new hands for $35m-plus
North Sydney’s Firehouse Hotel has been sold to Sonnel Hospitality, led by the son of a former lord mayor of Sydney, for more than $35 million, the first freehold pub to change hands in the area in more than 40 years.
The Firehouse Hotel was originally a fire station when it was built in 1895 and has since been transformed into a two-level venue at the base of a 50-storey tower that Billbergia has developed, North Sydney’s tallest building.
Just a short walk from the new Victoria Cross Station, the pub has 28 gaming machines and a 3am trading licence, making it a popular destination for North Sydney’s growing crowd of office workers.
Its new owner, Sonnel Hospitality, is headed by Simon Meers whose father was the lord mayor of Sydney from 1978 to 1980 and who founded the company, formerly called Nelson Meers Group.
The Firehouse adds to Sonnel’s expanding portfolio of venues including the Guildford Hotel, New Victoria Tavern and The Crossroads Hotel, which it purchased for $160 million in 2022 in the largest Australian pub deal on record.
The North Sydney pub was acquired amid heavy competition for at least $35 million, according to industry sources.
Making his exit is hotelier Mark Barry, who has owned the venue since 2007 and significantly renovated it in 2021. He said his family had thoroughly enjoyed its business connection with the North Sydney CBD.
“[We] feel entirely confident the exceptional Sonnel Hospitality team will ensure the Firehouse Hotel’s fine legacy is only further emboldened in the decades to come,” he said.
The North Sydney transaction also marks the latest in a run of large pub sales this month. Fund manager Harvest Hospitality sold the Milestone Hotel in Dubbo, NSW, and The Aussie Inn in Adelaide for a combined $50 million in separate deals. The Hunter Group also bought the Terrigal Hotel in the Central Coast for $47 million.
HTL Property’s Andrew Jolliffe brokered the North Sydney deal with colleague Dan Dragicevich, He declined to divulge transaction details but said the sale showed just how much “magnetism” the metro market had for hospitality investors.
“In terms of a marker for how the asset class is performing in Sydney currently, and with regard to investor sentiment, this sale sets a precedent and a salient reminder of the unsatisfied investor depth for AAA-grade hospitality property.”
