Last year Mr Quinn, Wagga Wagga-based pub baron Sean O’Hara and fellow investors sold Maitland’s Windsor Castle Hotel to fund manager Harvest Hotels for a record $51 million, after which they spent $15 million buying the Tourist Hotel in Queanbeyan.
Mr Quinn also heads syndicates that own the Lakeside Village Tavern in Raymond Terrace and the Rutherford and Bradford hotels in the Hunter.
Mr Quinn said he had “big plans” for the Bull and Bush, which stands on a 1.3 hectare site and includes a single-level tavern with 30 gaming machines, a drive-through bottle shop, a separate motel with 10 rooms, two leased shops and a large carpark.
“I live in this area and believe in this area. I’ve been looking at this pub for four-five years, but it’s taken a while to get there [as the new owner],” he added.
The Bull and Bush sale ends nearly four decades of ownership by the Feneley family, after retirees Cecil and Clare Feneley moved to Nelson Bay and bought the pub and motel for $860,000 in 1987.
The pub occupies a 1.3 hectare site in the centre of Medowie.
Cecil Feneley died in 2018, aged 92, while Clare passed away in 2021 aged 91. The couple had seven children.
HTL Property’s Dan Dragicevich, Blake Edwards and Xavier Plunkett negotiated the off-market sale.
“The Feneley family have done an astounding job servicing the local community since 1988, with the venue a focal point for the ever-expanding township and suburban catchment” Mr Dragicevich said.
“The multipurpose property provides the incoming purchaser with already strong and consistent cash flows; and also various levers for future expansion and growth,” he added.
Mr Plunkett said there had been an increase in buyer and seller activity in the NSW pub market after the state election. This followed a slower than usual start to the year in terms of transactions.
“We expect to announce further sales in the coming weeks,” he said.
In other pub news, the Montague Hotel in Brisbane’s West End has changed hands for about $20 million.
The two-level venue on a 787 square metre corner site at 363 Montague Road was developed out of an old office building by Peter Stark’s Platinum Group.
Property records show the property was purchased by MWE Hotels, directed by Anthony Fargas and Michael McClaren. Mr Fargas is the managing director of the Central Queensland Hotel Group, which owns pubs including the Carrollee Hotel in Kingaroy west of the Sunshine Coast.
The Montague includes a sports and lounge bar, bistro, gaming room, commercial kitchen and 11 basement car parks. Also included in the sale were three detached retail liquor stores. CBRE Hotels brokered the sale.