Options for selling the Hotel Australasia are being considered this week after the pub was passed in at Friday’s much-anticipated auction.
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Spectators flocked to the restaurant, lounge and beer garden to watch the historic event with many taking the opportunity to have a look around the empty building.
The past-its-prime Hotel Australasia has stood as a ghostly reminder of Eden’s past prosperity, since it closed unexpectedly on May 23, 2010.
An opening bid of $500,000, around one third of the pub’s estimated worth, was thrown into the ring but not accepted by auctioneer Nick Tinning of Chris Tinning and Co.
A vendor’s bid of $1.5m was the only bid made at auction after prospective buyers failed to answer Mr Tinning’s call for a $1.6m opening bid.
Mr Tinning said the vendor, Anne Kazas-Rogaris executrix for the estate, which owns the pub (AAP Investments Australia Pty Ltd as trustee for AAP Superannuation Fund), was now deciding how she would respond to offers which had come in this week.
Interested parties were asked to make offers following the auction.
“A number of people have come out with various offers and we’re trying to get instructions from Anne on prices,” he said.
There are several ways for the pub to sell.
The first is to keep the assets together, the land and building with 15 poker machine entitlements (PME) and hotelier’s licence. Mr Tinnings said several such offers have been made.
The second is to split the three assets and find the best buyers.
The licence, should it be sold with the PMEs, must stay within the local government area and cannot be added to an existing establishment.
Should it sell separately to the PMEs, one third of them must be rescinded to the government.
For every two that are sold, one must be forfeited.
Mr Tinning said it would be worth more to sell off the separate assets but far more complex.
“If you smash it up its worth more but there’s tax ramifications and considerations about who wants to buy the building,” he said.
He said keeping the pub together and selling off a few of the PMEs would be a good way to finance renovations.
“I’m advising (the vendors) that you don’t sell off the pokies separately to the building because you need to be sure the building will sell,” he said.
“(A prospective buyer could) sell off a few blocks (of three) PMEs and there’s a few hundred thousand for renovations.”
