The Beach Hotel in Byron sells for $140m
Businessman Scott Didier has purchased The Beach Hotel in Byron Bay off market for $140 million from Redcape Hotel Group, marking the second-highest price paid in a pub trade on record.
Didier, who is also chief executive of ASX-listed construction company Johns Lyng Group and a prolific philanthropist, and his family have bought the prominent hotel as a personal investment.
It will be added to a growing real estate portfolio that Didier has accumulated in the region, including the Byron Bay Beach Suites, along with stakes in the Great Northern Hotel and Hotel Marvell.
The Didier family was previously a minority shareholder in The Beach Hotel.
“The Beach Hotel is iconic, not just to Australians but to the many international visitors who love Byron Bay’s unique atmosphere and spectacular waterfront,” Didier said.
“My wife Yvette and the entire family look forward to growing and nurturing this magnificent asset for generations to come.”
Popularly known as “The Beachy”, the pub may not be the country’s most valuable – a select group of venues worth more than $200 million apiece have not been tested in the market – but it’s the second-most expensive to change hands since The Crossroads Hotel in Casula, southwest Sydney, sold for around $160 million in April 2022, purchased by hospitality group Sonnel.
Didier beat at least three other bidders to win the Byron prize.
Moelis Australia, now known as MA Financial and which manages the Redcape fund, purchased The Beach Hotel for $104 million from the Liberman family-backed Impact Investment in 2020.
“The sale not only delivers a strong result, but also marks an exciting new chapter for the Beach Hotel, and we are sure it will continue to thrive as a beloved part of the Byron Bay landscape under the guidance of the Didier family,” said Chris Unger, managing director for Redcape Hospitality.
Coleman Management Group will manage the Byron pub for the Didier family.
“The ‘Beachy’ is in solid hands with the Didier family, and our team looks forward to getting back to the fundamentals of what made the Beachy such a legendary venue,” director Justin Coleman said. “We are excited about its future and what we can deliver for patrons.”
John Musca, executive director at JLL Pubs Australia, and who managed the sale, said there were a handful of parties that vied for the asset, and continue to want it.
“There’s those that really understand the uniqueness of Byron Bay as a global proposition,” Musca told The Australian Financial Review. “Byron is just going from strength to strength … money has pooled into Byron again, over the last couple of years.
“There’s only a handful of them [pub assets] up and down the coast and they just continue to increase in value more than exponentially.”
The Beachy has passed through a series of owners since it was bought by John “Strop” Cornel, filmmaker and manager of comedian Paul Hogan, in 1990.
It was later sold to Impact Investment Group for $70 million in 2017 – a record at the time before being passed on to Moelis Australia.
It is the latest in a series of high-profile sales in the buoyant pub sector. Redcape itself is among the busier traders, offloading the El Cortez Hotel for about $100 million and the Cabramatta Hotel for $90 million at the end of last year. Both were acquired by Iris Capital, headed by Rich Lister Sam Arnaout.
