Sand Hill Road targets a $70m price tag for Espy pub freehold

Gorman Allard Shelton agent Joseph Walton, who is handling the international expressions of interest campaign, said: “It is truly a once in a lifetime investment opportunity, given its particularly strong lease to a blue chip tenant.”

The move comes as St Kilda appears to be entering a new cycle, with a cluster of new hotels and apartments, as well as the prize-winning Victorian Pride Centre, opening around the corner on Fitzroy Street.

It also follows a string of bumper hotel sales up and down the eastern and southern seaboards. More than $2 billion worth of hotels sold in 2021 and more than $300 million has already been spent this year.

While Melbourne hotels haven’t previously hit the peak prices paid by investors for pubs north of the Murray, Sydney hotelier Justin Hemmes’ Merivale group last year paid $38 million for the Lorne Hotel and another $40 million for Tomasetti House on Flinders Lane.

In St Kilda, the Village Belle sold for $31 million on a yield of 4.7 per cent just before Christmas.

And the Zagame family sold two of its suburban pokie palaces: the Boronia Hotel for $24 million and the Edwardes Lake Hotel in Reservoir for $28 million.

Sand Hill Road’s first attempt to sell its portfolio of businesses came unstuck at the beginning of the pandemic but is understood to have sold early this month for slightly more than the price touted in 2020.

Still on its books is the Waterside Hotel on Flinders Street, which is currently undergoing renovation.