The flagship company of a Sydney-based pub baron behind some of Australia's best-known hospitality venues has gone bankrupt and owes creditors $5.5 million.
Fraser Short, 48, placed They Sydney Collective in the hands of administrators Farnsworth Carson this month, according to an Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) notice published on Thursday.
Mr Short, who lives in a $9 million Vaucluse mansion with his wife Allyson and their three children, already handed over most of his pub properties earlier this year – many of which were sold to the Laundy Hotel Group in a deal of $300 million.
According to the ASIC document, the Sydney Collective owes the Australian Taxation Office $1.08 million and various trades and suppliers another $297,909.
The remaining $4.41 million is owed to the Warwick and Yates Trust, which is linked to the Short family. Fraser is the son of the now famous pub magnate Warwick Short.
Pub baron Fraser Short (pictured with wife Allyson) has placed his flagship company The Sydney Collective into administration with $5.5 million in debt
The Sydney Collective was accused by the United Workers Union in 2020 of underpaying staff at the Watson's Bay Hotel, with one chef claiming he worked up to 20 hours of unpaid overtime per week during his four years at the site.
It is understood an agreement was later reached with three employees over the payment of back wages, pensions and annual leave, with Mr Short insisting it was not a wider systemic problem.
Mr Short grew up in a pub-owning family and initially studied interior design, but then ventured into opening his own pubs at the age of 25 with Cargo Bar in King St Wharf, just before the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
It was a collaboration with parents Warwick and Ros and quickly became one of the most popular venues in the city.
He followed that up with nearby Bungalow 8 and The Loft in what was developed into the Barangaroo precinct, with both achieving similar success.
In 2012 he teamed up with Sydney's other pub-owning family, The Laundys, and bought the Watsons Bay Hotel in the city's east.
The Sydney Collective once owned the Watson Bay Hotel (pictured) with the Laundy family
Mr Short owned Bungalow 8 in Barangaroo (left) and opened his first pub Cargo Bar (right) aged just 25
The partnership continued with the purchase of the Mona Vale Hotel on the Northern Beaches and Northies in Cronulla.
In 2020 they had ventured to the north of the state to buy The Farm in Byron Bay and the nearby Lennox and Illawong hotels.
Short's The Sydney Collective then teamed up with other investors to buy the Balcony Bar in Byron Bay, the Sir George Hotel in Jugiong near Canberra and the Fitzroy Hotel in Windsor.
In Sydney he renovated The Imperial Hotel, turned the former dive bar The Brooklyn Hotel into the chic Morrison Bar and Oyster Room and bought a Whalebridge restaurant in Circular Quay.
He turned dive bar The Brooklyn Hotel in Sydney's CBD into the stylish Morrison Bar and Oyster Room (pictured)
Mr Short lives in Vaucluse with Allyson and their three children (photo in 2006)
Then, in early 2023, Short laid off a number of his pubs, six of which went to the Laundy's.
The scale and speed of the sell-out reportedly sparked whispers in pub industry circles.
Mr Short did not reveal his motivation for letting go of the assets, other than to say: 'Arthur (Laundy) made me a really good offer which allowed me to take some money off the table and focus on becoming a better father'.
“Running this business is a seven-day-a-week job. I'm almost fifty. My late father, Warwick, a successful publican, was only sixty when he died.'