Hotel Palisade’s $30 million price tag
The Hotel Palisade at Sydney’s Millers Point is back on the market and there are expectations that investors and hotel operators are ready to push up the price to over $30 million.
The hotel, which was once the highest building in Sydney and which had been built originally as a pub for port workers and the residents of Millers Point, was acquired last year for about $20 million by British entrepreneur Richard Sapsford.
Mr Sapsford spent more than $5 million refurbishing the property which had been built in 1915. His plan was to turn it into a boutique hotel and public bar. It was long overdue, the hotel had been dormant for seven years.
To show what it was all about, the hotel unveiled a major draw card in November - the Henry Deane rooftop bar and restaurant, named after the engineer who electrified Sydney’s tramway system.
That was in addition to eight luxurious hotel rooms, functions spaces, and the Public House Bar on street level.
But Sapsford has now reluctantly put the hotel on the market again.
He is selling it for personal reasons John Musca and Peter Harper of JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group are in charge of marketing it internationally.
According to Musca, the hotel has already attracted a lot of interest from high net worth investors – and the hotel isn’t even on the market yet. Obviously word gets around.
"It's the most spectacular asset I have ever had the privilege of representing, and anyone who has ever been to the Henry Deane rooftop bar comes away literally speechless at the Harbour Bridge, Barangaroo and city views – it's a one of a kind outlook that can never, ever be built out," Mr Musca told the Australian Financial Review.
He said range of domestic and offshore hotel groups and hospitality operators would be looking to add it as a "highly publicised boutique addition" to their portfolios.
by Leon Gettler, October 31st 2016
