SINGLETON & DIXON SELL 6TH HOTEL IN 6 MONTHS & CROWN SELLING LAND ON VEGAS STRIP
KINSELAS KNOCKED DOWN FOR AN UNDISCLOSED PRICE
The hotel property market continues to run red hot. One of the latest sales was by Geoff Dixon and John Singleton’s Australian Pub Fund which sold the Kinselas Hotel at Sydney’s busy Taylor’s Square to long-time hoteliers the Kospetas family’s Universal Hotel Group.
It is the sixth hotel the Australian Pub Fund, run by former Qantas chief executive Mr Dixon, Mr Singleton and their silent partner Mark Carnegie, has sold in as many months.
The combined sales have reaped the fund about $120 million and include the well-known Marlborough Hotel in Newtown, which was bought by Matt Moran and Bruce Solomon’s Solotel Group for about $34 million.
Universal Hotel Group also owns Sydney CBD’s Civic Hotel, V Bar and recently opened Pitt Street Greek-themed bar and restaurant 1821.
Ray White’s Asia-Pacific director of hotels, Andrew Jolliffe, advised on the Kinselas sale and said demand for pubs remained high. Mr Jolliffe sold Tennyson Hotel in Mascot last year to Justin Hemmes’ Merivale Group for $37 million, and the $40 million Coolibah Hotel in Sydney’s western suburbs earlier this month for the Vlandis Group to another local family-run operator.
Ray White Hotels Australia has about $100 million of “Super A Grade” hotel assets currently under agreement nationally.
Sources: Ray White Hotels. smh.com.au, realcommercial.com.au
CROWN SELLING LAND ON VEGAS STRIP
In other real estate news, James Packer’s Crown Resorts is looking to sell a piece of land on the Las Vegas Strip where it had once intended to build a new casino called Alon.
Packer’s company announced in December that it would be abandoning the project, in an effort to focus on its business in Australia. The project falling through had to be disappointing for Packer, who once said that “you can’t be in the gaming industry and not have a special reverence for Las Vegas.”
It wasn’t the first time Packer’s Crown unsuccessfully made a play for Las Vegas. Packer lost nearly $2 billion on casino investments in the U.S. thanks to the 2008 financial crisis.
The 35-acre piece of land sits directly across from Wynn Las Vegas and Encore, just north of Fashion Show mall. Crown is seeking $400 million for the site, of which it owns about 18 acres.
The site traded for $1.2 billion in 2007.
The property is the former site of the New Frontier that was demolished in 2007.
According to a report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Israeli investors bought the New Frontier in 2007 with plans for a new casino called Plaza Las Vegas. That project never came to fruition, and Crown was able to acquire the site in 2014 for $280 million.
The move by Crown to list the land came the same week that Genting—another one of the world’s top casino developers—announced that its $4 billion Resorts World Las Vegas has been delayed.
Sources: cardplayer.com, Casinos & Gaming Smartbrief
