Third time lucky at Courthouse Hotel
HOT Tomato radio station chief Hans Torv has made it third time lucky selling pub with no beer, the Courthouse Hotel in Southport.
An unconditional contract on the hotel due to settle last month has proceeded, cancelling the need for a scheduled auction later this month.
Mr Torv told the Bulletin the deal settled this week.
“The buyer had a hiccup but came back.”
The Courthouse, on the corner of Nerang and Davenport streets, has been closed for two years.
It still was serving customers when it first was put on the market in 2014 and subsequently twice has been ‘sold’.
The first contract was with Brisbane’s Anthony Moreton Group, which mooted a residential tower on the 1631 sqm site, along with a hotel upgrade. When the deal did not settle in mid-2015, Mr Torv said he was ‘astonished’.
“To default on a contract in the final hours, not show up at settlement and leave staff in limbo is something we wouldn’t do.”
Mr Torv had terminated supply contracts and was forced to close the hotel.
A new marketing effort late last year saw an Asian party enter an unconditional deal to buy the hotel, with a mid-2017 settlement date, but it initially failed to go ahead.
The buyer is believed to have been planning shops at street level and backpacker rooms on the first floor.
The ‘sale’ did not include the Courthouse’s 30 pokermachine licences, believed to be worth around $2 million, which already had been sold.
Former disc jockey Mr Torv owns the Courthouse via Clipper Group Holdings with sister Anna Mann.
James Crawford and Steve Clark were involved in remarketing the hotel.
The Courthouse was bought by Clipper for $5 million in 2005. Trade suffered during light rail construction along Nerang St.
The hotel traces back to 1885 when Frederick Fass opened it as Queen’s Arms.