Overview
If you've got a few extra million dollars lying around, then here's your chance to snap up your very own historic beachside boozer. Manly's longstanding Hotel Steyne is up for sale, nine years after current owners — John Singleton, Robert Whyte, Mark Carnegie and Arthur Laundy — bought it for a reported $27 million.
The seaside pub's not going cheap this time around either. According to the SMH, it's expected to fetch around $70 million. Though you're getting a lot of bang for your buck: it's home to six bars, a bistro, multiple outdoor areas and a rooftop that looks out over Manly Beach.
The rooftop at Hotel Steyne.
Of course, with such a long history and hefty crew of regulars, Hotel Steyne won't be parted with easily. Fans of the old-school watering hole, which was first built in 1859, have voiced concerns about what might happen to their local once it's in new hands, with fears it's set to be modernised and its beer prices destined to rise. Manly local Barry Fagan told the SMH, "I used to be able to get a schooner for 20 cents. Now it's $8. But seriously, I've been coming here for 40 years. It's an icon of Manly, you hope that a new owner could respect that."
Hotel Steyne is just the latest in a string of high-profile Sydney pub sales pulling in the big bucks. Over the past two years, hospitality giant Merivale has acquired Marrickville's Vic On The Park, The Colloroy, The Tennyson on Botany Road, Bondi's Royal Hotel and Woollahra's Hotel Centennial, with all sales predicted to be in the tens of millions. Another big player in the Sydney hospitality scene, Solotel offloaded the Clovelly Hotel — which it had just purchased in 2016 — for $34 million big ones in 2017, according to the Australian Financial Review.
Expressions of interest for Manly's Hotel Steyne close on Wednesday, March 13.
Find Hotel Steyne at 75 The Corso, Manly.