Laundy & Short families join to make another coastal acquisition

The Illawong Hotel in Evans Head has been sold to a syndicate made up of Laundy Hotels, Sydney Collective (Fraser Short) and Nick and Justine Tindall (née Laundy).

The Illawong Hotel is the sole pub in the coastal town of Evans Head, a 30 minute drive from Ballina Airport and Byron Bay.

The art-deco building is set on 2,200sqm of land, directly opposite the largest waterfront caravan park on the eastern seaboard. The hotel has an attached bottle shop and 18 accommodation rooms.

Listing agents Nick Butler and Steve Pursell of Pub Brokers & Advisory managed a complex sales process, packaging up the existing leasehold / business with the freehold investment interest.

Leaseholder Daniel Simpson has five years left in his term and new owner Nick Tindall suggested that there are no immediate plans to change the hotel nor its operations.

He told The Hotel Conversation that: “Fraser Short and the amazing team at Sydney Collective have a great eye for detail, so adding a little of that polish will be all that the locals will notice. Justine and I are excited to be partnering with them, as well as her broader family."

Butler said: “Balancing the interests of a leaseholder and freehold owner was made far easier by their recognition that the whole was greater than the sum of the parts. It’s been an important factor for the owners, in making their decision to sell, that the hotel is transitioning to a family that appreciates how important the pub is to the town”.