Pub barons Arthur Laundy, Justin Hemmes and Solomon family in hospitality war

Hotel magnate Arthur Laundy and his family dynasty have gone head-to-head with hospitality king Justin Hemmes amid a record-breaking $2.2 billion pub-buying frenzy.

Laundy has acquired full ownership of six iconic hospitality venues in a $150 million deal, including Sydney’s iconic Watsons Bay Hotel.

The purchase will bring the Laundy family’s hotel assets to nearly 90 properties.

While Justin Hemmes is still considered Australia’s hospitality king with over 80 venues and billions in assets with names like Ivy, Queen Chow, hemmesphere and Establishment, the 81-year-old Laundy’s latest move is a tilt for that crown

The third big player on the scene is the Solomon family company, Solotel, which owns pubs and bars in Sydney and Brisbane, and Matt Moran’s award-winning restaurants, including Aria, Chiswick and North Bondi Fish.

But Laundy’s latest spending is set to tip hospitality investment above the record $2.2bn as of June 30, 2022, with pub broker HTL predicting annual hotel sales to nearly double from $1.3k. million in 2019.

It follows the Laundy family’s acquisition of the Thomas Blamey Tavern in Wagga Wagga for a record $27 million in March last year.

Arthur Laundy’s family hotel group just spent $150 million to acquire full ownership of hotels like Watson’s Bay, pushing industry spending to a new record.

Laundy has acquired full ownership of six iconic venues, including Sydney’s Watsons Bay Hotel, which will bring his family’s hospitality assets to nearly 90 venues.

Considered recession- and inflation-proof investments that are booming while office and commercial properties have slumped, cash-flow-rich hotels and restaurants are highly sought after, and business is thriving post-Covid.

The Laundy family’s head of business transactions, Stuart Laundy, said his hotels were overbooked and the nation had come out of the pandemic “strongly … and our customers are in great spirits.”

He had previously warned against a rapid introduction of the cashless gaming card in New South Wales, saying further investigation and testing was required.

“A lot of jobs are at risk. They need to take their time to get it right,’ she said.

The Laundy deal buys former business partner Fraser Short in Watsons Bay, Lennox Head and Illawong hotels, plus Northies in Cronulla, Park House, Mona Vale and 32ha The Farm, near Byron Bay, the AFR informed.

Stuart Laundy, said the latest acquisitions made Laundy Hotels probably the largest seller of draft beer in the country.

Hotel king Justin Hemmes’ model girlfriend, Madeline Holtznagel, at a staff party last year at his iconic venue The Ivy, one of some 90 pubs and restaurants in his hospitality empire.

Fourth-generation family hotelier Elliot Solomon runs the Solotel group business, which includes more than 20 pubs and Matt Moran’s, Aria, Chiswick and North Bondi Fish restaurants.

Stuart Laundy (pictured) said the latest acquisitions made Laundy Hotels probably the largest seller of draft beer in the country.

Other investors in the bar and restaurant game include currency trader Adam MacFarlane, who bought the Lord Roberts Hotel last year for $22.5 million, and former Sydney Mayor Nelson Meers’ purchase of the Crossroads Hotel in Casula, for a record $160 million.

Laundy’s deal brings total bar sales for the first five weeks of 2023 alone to about $330 million.

Last November, Justin Hemmes described the recovery of the hotel industry after the Covid pandemic as “extraordinary”, with Sydney-based Merivale expanding interstate during the lockdown.

He bought the ornate Tomasetti house on Melbourne’s Flinders Lane for $43 million in 2021 and the Lorne Hotel for $37 million on Great Ocean Road.

Hemmes’s assets include the Paddington and Beresford hotels, Mr Wong, Ms G’s, Bar Totti’s and the Collaroy hotel.

The Solotel hotel group founded in 1986 has more than 20 hotels and bars, as well as restaurants such as Chophouse Sydney and House Canteen on Circular Quay.

Fourth-generation hotelier CEO Elliot Solomon, who took over in 2021, oversaw the diversification of the company’s pubs and bars.

The Solotel group includes iconic pubs such as the Kings Cross Hotel, The Golden Sheaf in Double Bay, The Clock Hotel in Surry Hills, the Bank, Courthouse and Marlborough hotels in Newtown, and the Erskineville Hotel, Darlo Bar, Opera Bar and The Edinburgh Castle Hotel in the Sydney CBD.