Building housing ‘iconic’ pub up for sale again
“Iconic” pub and restaurant The Honest Lawyer is to change hands, less than three years after it was sold for $5.3 million to its current owners.
In May 2021, Ectara Ltd, Murali Kodoor and Geeta Ganesh’s company, bought the Nelson property, after buying the hotel across the road.
Last year, the couple were ordered by the High Court to pay a $1 million debt that a former friend had been trying to recover for a decade.
Former ACT MP and director of The Honest Lawyer Chris Baillie said while the land and buildings were up for sale, he was a lessee of the property and owned the business. It was a “beautiful spot, and quite iconic”, he said.
While the premises was coming up for a change of ownership, Baillie said his lease was “rock solid” for 22 years.
“After a few tough years, hospitality is certainly picking up,” he told
“And I’ve got real hope and optimism for the future.”
JLL director of hotel sales Nick Thompson said the property was sold to the current owners after they had already bought what is now The Grand Arden Monaco Nelson.
They had opted to sell the pub as it was “non core” for the owner, who had a number of hotels around the country.
“He’s gone, ‘It’s a beautiful property, I love it, but it doesn’t fit with the rest of the portfolio’,” Thompson said.
It was an “amazing looking property”, which was “right next to a whole lot of demand drivers”.
In general the hotel market was looking “very positive”, with daily rates that hotels could achieve well above what they were pre pandemic.
“We’re viewed as a very safe country down at the bottom end of the world,”
Thompson said.
“Now that we’ve got a stable government and interest rates looking like they have most likely peaked and hopefully will start coming down, people have a very positive outlook towards investment down here.”
The pub, built in an English style, forms part of a 1.3 hectare waterfront landholding.
According to its Trade Me listing, it has a net annual income of $300,000 plus GST.