The sale campaign is being managed by leading agents Xavier Plunkett and Andrew Jolliffe, with the property offered on a Freehold Going Concern basis and via an international Expression of Interest process closing Thursday 31 July 2025 (unless sold prior).
The vendor is private hotelier Jim Knox, who divested the neighbouring Area Hotel for a reported $30 million in mid 2024.
Occupying a commanding 2,547sqm site in the heart of Griffith’s thriving CBD, the Gem Hotel is a trophy-grade asset by every measure. The landmark venue comprises:
- 65 x four-star hotel rooms with high occupancy and premium rates
- Consistently ranked amongst the top five regional gaming venues in NSW, with 29 poker machin entitlements and extended 3am trading
- A multi-award-winning, AGFG hatted steakhouse, Bull & Bell, recently ranked among the Top 100 steakhouses globally
- Sophisticated, Paul Kelly-designed interiors throughout the entire venue
- Annualised revenues exceeding $13 million, with strong earnings driven by high-margin gaming and accommodation departments.
“Griffith, located in the Riverina region, is considered an economic powerhouse, with a Gross Regional Product of $2.7 billion and key industries spanning viticulture, agriculture, food processing, and manufacturing," said HTL Property's Xavier Plunkett.
“The city’s remarkably strong diversification across many agricultural sectors and industries essentially insulates it from market volatility in any single sector."
Griffith also enjoys a favourable one-pub-per-7,000-residents ratio, well above state averages, with legislated barriers to new competition enhancing the sustainability of earnings for incumbent operators. The gaming fundamentals mirror that of Western Sydney's best gaming venues, not those typically on offer in Regional NSW.
“We anticipate the market to benchmark the asset against the sales of the Robin Hood, Orange ($47,400,000), the Windsor Castle, Maitland ($50,500,000), and the Port Macquarie Hotel, Port Macquarie ($53,000,000),” said HTL Property managing director, Andrew Jolliffe.
“Though we’d be hurried to point out that the Gem outperforms all of the aforementioned pubs on an earnings basis; and what's more, the business fundamentals in Griffith are among the most compelling in the state," Mr Plunkett said.
“The local economy is defined by full employment, high household incomes, significant government and private infrastructure investment, and a large itinerant workforce, all highly attractive drivers for the most astute hospitality operators, said Jolliffe.
"Our firm has been involved in the sale of in excess of $200m worth or regional hospitality assets nationally over the past month; and The Gem presents as maybe the most exciting regional hotel asset we've ever been engaged to represent" Jolliffe said.
The extraordinary Riverina offering is expected to attract interest from both institutional capital and private investors seeking scale and iron-clad defensibility.
“The Gem Hotel truly is very clearly a trophy asset by any measure” Plunkett said.
