Continental Hotel Sorrento hits the market in $150M landmark listing
The Continental Hotel in Sorrento – along with its dedicated workers’ lodge – has officially hit the market, with the ownership group chasing a combined $150 million in one of this year’s biggest hotel offerings.
The 150-year-old landmark on the Mornington Peninsula, just outside Melbourne, was given a major $120 million facelift nearly four years ago by a heavyweight consortium comprising Victor Smorgon Group (the investment arm of the Smorgon family), the family-owned Kanat Group and Trenerry Property Group, led by Robert DiCintio.
A sale was tipped for late last year with guidance of about $180 million, but that campaign never got off the ground.
This time around, the offering includes the 108-room InterContinental Sorrento, its bar and dining venues, multiple event spaces, an underground car park and the Aurora Spa & Bathhouse founded by Lyndall Mitchell.
Also wrapped into the deal is Sorrento Lodge, a 76-bed, budget-friendly accommodation property built to house hospitality workers. The assets are being marketed together on a sale-and-leaseback basis for $150 million, with JLL and Cushman & Wakefield running the campaign.
“In terms of assets that have come to market, this is right up there with the landmark sale of the Park Hyatt Melbourne earlier in the year,” JLL’s Peter Harper told The Australian Financial Review. “The vendors are primarily developers, the divestment is part of their plan.
“They took the asset on a few years ago and undertook an incredibly extensive renovation and extension of the asset, and have now got it up trading, and now is the right time to exit.”
Harper said the campaign should draw strong interest from both domestic and offshore capital.
“When you look at the dollars that have been invested in real estate throughout the Mornington Peninsula on residential alone, it speaks to the wealth and the prestige, reputation of investments in that area,” he said.
“This is the sort of asset that a lot of offshore groups would seek to get just given the rarity and genuine trophy status.”
On the F&B front, Kickon Group’s Craig Shearer and celebrity chef Scott Pickett have shaped the venue’s offering over the past three years. Their partnership is now being unwound, with Kickon Group taking full control of Ember – the rebranded fine-diner formerly known as Audrey’s.
“We’ve got a long tenure ahead of us and we love operating such an iconic Victorian venue, and look forward to many more years ahead,” Shearer told the Financial Review. “Next week, we’ll be reopening as Ember, with the high-end steak and seafood restaurant.”
Administrators were appointed to two of Pickett’s companies earlier this year, including Rogue Traders Group, which oversees Melbourne venues Matilda, Chancery Lane and Longrain.
The current owners picked up the Continental out of receivership in April 2020 for about $14.5 million after a previous $80 million redevelopment plan collapsed with failed developer Steller, leaving the building perched above a gaping excavation.
In 2021, the group inked a deal with hotel giant IHG to badge the property under the luxury InterContinental brand.
“We anticipate strong interest from both domestic and international investors, given the property’s prime location, quality tenants and enduring appeal as a year-round destination,” Cushman & Wakefield’s Daniel Wolman said.
Jonathan Jackson, 11th December 2025
