August 7, 2026 — 5:00am
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Capital Gain
When it comes to buying pubs, Justin Hemmes is never still. The billionaire hotelier has just pocketed another pub, the popular Sackville hotel in Rozelle. He’ll add the fresh $50 million purchase to another he made just two months ago when he turned up at the auction of the Barracks and dropped a cool $19 million.
For Hemmes and his Merivale group, it’s always a good time to buy pubs. The Sackville (or Sacky-Roos as it was recently dubbed during the World Cup series) was offloaded by private owned Amalgamated Hotels group, which had owned the pub for about two decades.
Amalgamated was founded by Bruce Solomon whose pub management business Solotel operates the venue. A former personal secretary of the late Lady Mary Fairfax, Lee Thomas, is also a director of Amalgamated Hotels.
Unlike the purchase of The Barracks, a former RSL club, where Hemmes turned up in person to outbid three others at auction, the Sackville deal was done behind closed doors.
The pub’s sale, in the heart of Rozelle at 599 Darling Street, will need merger clearance from competition watchdog, the ACCC. Hemmes already owns another venue in the same suburb, Totti’s Rozelle, within the Three Weeds hotel – a reference to a rose, shamrock and thistle.
The deal adds yet another venue to Merivale’s extensive 80-plus empire that it owns and manages across Sydney, regional NSW and Victoria.
Offloading the Sackville is part of a larger sale by Amalgamated which includes The Clock and The Bank. JLL Hotels and Hospitality Group’s John Musca, Ben McDonald and Kate MacDonald handled the transaction.
In the family
A Merrylands building that launched Australia’s original discount chemist is going to auction for the first time in 74 years, ending a remarkable era of single-family ownership.
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The two-building property at 185-189 Merrylands Road is home to the original Cincotta Discount Chemist, which first opened its doors in 1952.
The site is fully leased to the Cincotta Group and an optometrist through to 2033, with the property returning $353,184 in net annual income. That gives it a price expectation of about $6 million.
Joseph Cincotta, whose family has held the land since 1952, said the property holds an iconic place in Australian retail history. His pioneer store paved the way for modern after-hours and discount pharmacy trading in Australia and now serves as the flagship location for the Cincotta group, which spans more than 50 locations nationwide.
The building sits on 797 square metres of land with a commercial centre zoning and has dual street frontages with rear lane access to Main Lane. It’s covered by a 77-metre height limit.
RWC Western Sydney agents Peter Vines, Joseph Assaf and Victor Sheu are advising on the sale.
Pub facelift
Sonnel Hospitality has got a green light to undertake about $15 million in redevelopment work at the Ashfield Hotel and Hurstville Ritz Hotel in Sydney’s inner-west.
The venue owner will start the work next year. About $11 million will be spent at the Ashfield pub, adding a new sports bar, beer garden, bistro, upper-level function spaces and outdoor terrace. The heritage facade will also be restored.
Hurstville’s Ritz will get $4 million for a new central bar, bigger sports offering and expanded semi-enclosed beer garden fronting Forest Road.
Sonnel’s growing pipeline includes the recently acquired Firehouse and Peakhurst hotels. It also has redevelopment approvals for the Crossroads and Ermington hotels.
Zulu retreat
Melbourne-based Salter Brothers have put one of the Blue Mountains’ most exclusive hotels, Spicers Sangoma Retreat, on the market.
The Retreat’s agents Nic Simarro, Andrew Jackson and Mark Durran from HTL Property wouldn’t disclose a price, but market experts suggest the hotel’s high-end accommodation, along with rising demand from buyers hunting for premium assets, could see it command a figure around $20 million.
Nestled in Bowen Mountain, in the foothills less than 90-minutes drive from Sydney’s CBD, the resort has sweeping, and exclusive, views over the Nepean River Valley.
Named after the Zulu word for “healer,” Sangoma’s eight luxury suites were bought by investment managers Salter Brothers in 2023 when they took control of the Spicers Retreats portfolio. That deal included six Spicers’ retreats in Queensland and NSW with portfolio exchanging hands for about $130 million.
Accommodation Australia chief executive James Goodwin said the first half of the year was a tale of two quarters for the hotel sector nationally.
Major events helped drive demand and room rates early in the year, but geopolitical uncertainty, higher fuel costs, and softer economic conditions weighed as the year progressed.
“We started the year strongly but were hamstrung by external forces through the second quarter,” Goodwin said.
carolynannecummins@gmail.com
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