Perth's Bayswater Hotel for sale for the first time in 40 years
For the first time in four decades, the landmark 123-year-old Bayswater Hotel & Motel, in Perth’s eastern suburbs, has hit the market, with the site’s new development guidelines a potential drawcard.
Located on a 6452-square-metre landholding at 78-80 Railway Parade, Bayswater, the hotel is licensed for 744 patrons. It has three bars, a cafe, a restaurant and function area, a drive-through bottle shop and TAB facilities, as well as 40 accommodation rooms.
The freehold asset is being offered through an expressions of interest campaign led by JLL Hotels and Hospitality senior executive Chloe Mason and sales and investment director Sean Flynn.
“If our previous hotly contested campaigns for the Subiaco Hotel and Leopold Hotel are anything to go by, this landmark watering hole with its 123-year history will undoubtedly gain a significant amount of interest from multiple buyer profiles,” Ms Mason said.
Owned by a partnership of three, Ms Mason said the elderly owners, of which one passed away earlier this year, decided to test the market after receiving several unsolicited offers over the years.
“This pub has always traded very consistently over the last 10 years. It has got a very loyal following … doubled with the development upside that the site offers,” Ms Mason said.
“Everyone (pubs and hotels) in Perth is trading pretty strongly at the moment. Revenue is up; in some cases up to 40 per cent.”
Last week, Development WA released new design guidelines which highlighted that new development would be concentrated within the precinct to foster population growth, public transport use and enhance town-centre vibrancy.
The new guidelines allow a discretionary height of up to 18 storeys (55 metres) to be considered for the Bayswater Hotel site.
The hotel is directly opposite the Bayswater Train Station, which is part of a new $253 million upgrade, one of the key components of Perth’s METRONET project.
The Midland, Forrestfield-Airport and Ellenbrook train lines, in addition to bus routes, will converge at the Bayswater Train Station, transforming the area into a transport and retail hub.
“From a future development or repositioning perspective, unlike typical infill sites, the Bayswater Hotel & Motel provides a unique and significant development opportunity for savvy developers to pursue site optimisation while maintaining a robust income stream from the existing business operations,” Mr Flynn said.
Ms Mason expected a fair bit of interest from buyers in the development and hospitality sectors but said the sale price would be “guided by the market”.
Since 1898, the heritage-listed hotel has had just three owners. The heritage listing states the hotel is “of major importance by virtue of its very early origins and because it is the only remnant of the times when businesses – such as they were – were situated north of the railway line.”
In its heyday, the hotel was used for afternoon teas and later became a working man’s hotel in the 1930s.
After World War II, it avoided demolition, and in the 1960s, was extensively renovated.
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