This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
FORMER VFL/AFL player, Garry Baker and well-known restaurateur, Susan Catchpool, have sold the Salamanca Place freehold of iconic Tasmanian restaurant Rockwall Bar & Grill for around $6 million post-auction, at yesterday’s Burgess Rawson property portfolio auction event in Melbourne.
Nearly $26 million of properties were sold with a 75% clearance rate across the 12 properties. That followed five out of 10 assets selling at the Sydney edition on Tuesday for a combined $35 million, on an average yield of 5.25%.
The 89 Salamanca Place property sold on a yield of about 4.2%, which according to Burgess Rawson’s Matthew Wright is one of the sharpest in Salamanca history, and the best result since Irish Murphy’s was sold more than six years ago.
Wright said investors who may not have had Tasmania on their radar five years ago, certainly do now.
“They see it as a safe place to park money and one that they love after enjoying it first-hand,” he said.
“In the past we might have seen a locally-driven auction for a property like this, but it is not like that anymore.”
“I had a number of enquiries from non-Tasmanians who have experienced Hobart for themselves, who had eaten at Rockwall or next door at the Ball & Chain. They knew exactly where it was, the history of the area, the beautiful location, and they could see the value. Some were all quite emotive in their assessment of it.”
Burgess Rawson’s Matthew Wright and Beau Coulter, in conjunction with George Burbury and Scott Newton at Knight Frank Tasmania sold the property.
Baker played 147 games for Footscray, Melbourne and Sydney across 11 years in the VFL before settling in Tasmania, opening a number of pubs and restaurants in and around the city.
The other major sale at yesterday’s auction was of a childcare centre in southern Adelaide’s Seacombe Gardens, which sold for $6.97 million on a 5.5% net yield. Guardian Childcare has a 15-year net lease with 10-year options.
Another childcare centre, in Perth’s Baldivis, leased to boutique operator The Family Tree, sold for $3.485 million, on a 5.88% net yield.
Meanwhile, a Mazda service centre in Melbourne’s eastern suburb of Ferntree Gully sold for $3.38 million, at 5.04%.
Major sales at the Sydney event included a 7-Eleven petrol station on Pacific Highway in Killara, on Sydney’s Lower North Shore, for $7.5 million and on a sub-4% yield, while a McDonald’s restaurant in Broken Hill adjoining Westside Plaza sold for $5.75 million on a 3.9% yield.
Another petrol station, a Viva Energy site in Adelaide, sold for $6.6 million at 5.5%, and a Bathurst Centrelink sold for $5.1 million at 7.1%.
