The Lucky Hotel, Newcastle sells for $20 million

The Newcastle sisters responsible for rebuilding The Lucky Hotel have described selling the venue as “incredibly bittersweet”.

The McCloy Group bought the historic building at 237 Hunter Street in 2008, six years after the Lucky Country Hotel shut down.

It was another six years until The Lucky Hotel opened its doors to 2000 people on its first day in 2014, kickstarting a flourishing trade.

After leading the hotel to five AHA awards in 2015 including country hotel of the year, sisters Blake Nash and Hayley Van de Stadt (nee McCloy) took full control in 2016 and have run it ever since.

Seeking to spend more time with their young families, the pair recently sold the venue off-market for about $20 million to Sydney-based Martin Scott, the Australian head of Partners Group.

“We just decided we’d built the business up as much as we could and it’s really time now just to focus on our families and have a break,” Mrs Van de Stadt said.

“We started off in my Dad’s family business … there was a lot of hard work in planning. We worked incredibly hard to get it to where it is today.

“For almost eight years we did that and we’re incredibly proud.”

Ms Van de Stadt said she was grateful for the hotel’s staff, describing them as the “backbone of the business”.

“We are incredibly sad to be saying goodbye especially to our team and our staff, we’re really going to miss them. We certainly made a dint in the Newcastle pub scene with the style of pub that it was.

“I think it was a cut above the rest when we opened and I still believe it’s a really premium venue to go to in Newcastle.”

The sale marks Mr Scott’s first acquisition and follows a string of pub sales in the region, including the $16 million transaction of New Lambton’s Duke of Wellington hotel in October.

JLL Hotel’s Kate MacDonald, who brokered the sale, said the hotel had attracted strong interest.

“We had several people look through the hotel, some flew in from interstate as well to have a look – it’s not often you come across a hotel of this grandeur,” she said.

“It’s one of the most well presented hotels in Newcastle, possibly even in New South Wales. It’s beautifully restored and I think it’s worth every penny.”

Newcastle Herald | Hamish Geale
DECEMBER 19 2021