Pub player Harvest pours $500m into new open-ended fund
Pub investor Harvest Hospitality is rolling out a new open-ended fund aimed at both retail and wholesale investors, with an eye on raising about $500 million over the medium term.
The Harvest Hospitality Income Fund will launch with three seed assets, including Brady’s Railway Hotel in Albury, which Harvest is picking up for about $25 million.
The group already owns 12 hotels across NSW and South Australia and is now lining up its next growth phase.
Part of that growth push is north of the border. Industry sources say Harvest is actively chasing opportunities in southeast Queensland, including East Brisbane’s Shafston Hotel. The group has also been linked to The Wharf marina berths development at Mooloolaba, which hit the market in August with an $80 million guide. The Wharf operation includes 57 marina berths and about 7,000 square metres of freehold land, making it a sizeable mixed-use and hospitality play.
Harvest Hospitality chief executive Chris Cornforth is keeping tight-lipped on specific southeast Queensland targets, including The Wharf, but the level of interest around the asset shows how hot the sector is running. The expressions-of-interest campaign, which closed in October, drew in some of the biggest names in Australian hospitality.
Among those circling were billionaire Sydney publican Justin Hemmes, who controls an estimated $1.6 billion portfolio of restaurants, pubs and bars, and Brisbane-based operator Adam Flaskas, the driving force behind Brisbane’s booming Howard Smith Wharves and a co-owner of property around Sydney’s Manly Wharf. Also mentioned in connection with The Wharf is Rob Comiskey, boss of family-owned Comiskey Group, a Queensland construction and hotels outfit.
On the capital side, Cornforth has assembled a heavyweight investment committee to advise the new fund. Sitting on the committee are Charlie Viola, founding partner of Viola Wealth; John White, former CEO of pub landlord HPI; and Damien Elias, CEO of Grant Samuel.
The Harvest Hospitality Income Fund is targeting $500 million in assets under management, a distribution yield of 6–8 per cent per annum (post fees) and an internal rate of return in the 10–12 per cent per annum range after fees. Distributions are set to be paid quarterly, with capped withdrawal facilities and periodic liquidity events built into the structure.
Harvest is pitching the fund as a direct play on current pub market dynamics: hospitality spending rising 72 per cent, banks returning to back well-run venues, strong activity in owner-operated and mid-scale pubs, and ongoing demand for diversified-income and gaming-led assets.
Importantly, this is the first time Harvest has opened an investment offering to retail investors, made available via its responsible entity, giving smaller investors a chance to buy into the group’s next wave of pub and hospitality acquisitions.
Jonathan Jackson, 4th December 2025
