Hinterland resort seeks quick sale

KOORALBYN resort owner Peter Huang plans a quick push to sell the property or take in a well-heeled partner in the wake of its trade being hurt by the affects of drought, bushfires and the coronavirus.

The Brisbane real estate agency principal said an information memorandum was to be prepared ahead of an international marketing campaign.

“I hope to have the campaign under way within the next one to two weeks,” he said.

Mr Huang said the 328ha resort’s main market, Chinese groups, had stopped in the wake of a Chinese Government travel ban from January 27.

He said the resort, which has a golf course and 100-room Ramada hotel at its heart, also had been hit by the “extended historic drought” and by bushfires in the area surrounding it.

The realtor, who bought the resort from receivers for $6.5 million in 2014 after it had been closed for eight years, said his total investment in it had passed $30 million.

“I’ve done all the hard work – I need someone to take the resort to the next level.

“Hopefully, the resort will be sold very soon to another far more wealthy Australian, like Clive Palmer.”

The original motel on the Kooralbyn resort site, today known as the 30-room Packer Lodge, has been refurbished and, under an agreement with Queensland Health, can be used as a coronavirus isolation facility for people who are asked to self-isolate.

Mr Huang said the resort’s hotel was trading at a 42 per cent occupancy rate and “improving all the time”.

That figure was impacted by inbound Chinese groups, which had “100 per cent” stopped coming.

“Hopefully that’s a shortterm thing. I believe the occupancy level could be lifted by

HOPEFULLY, THE RESORT WILL BE SOLD VERY SOON TO ANOTHER FAR MORE WEALTHY AUSTRALIAN, LIKE CLIVE PALMER

PETER HUANG

20 per cent if the Australian market was targeted.”

The Kooralbyn resort was started by Sydney knights Peter Abeles and Arthur George on land bought in the 1970s.

It subsequently was owned by Westpac arm AGC, a Japanese group, and then New Zealander Ray Schofield, who lost it to receivers.

The resort includes large areas of undeveloped land.