Sorrento's Continental Hotel for sale
The Continental Hotel at Sorrento has been listed for sale by the Di Pietro family with $15 million expectations.
The four storey limestone building sits on a 3,580 square metre holding.
The "Conti" stands tall at its hillside 1-21 Ocean Beach Road position.
The hotel will be sold with freehold and business with offers due 16 April through Sothebys International agent Rob Curtain, in conjunction with CBRE.
The pioneer thespian and entrepreneur George Coppin built the mansard-capped hotel in the 1870s. The seaside spruiker shipped wealthy Melburnians to the Mornington Peninsula on his paddle steamers, and then put them on his tramway to stay at his Hotel Continental.
In 1890 the hotel was bought by Isaac Edward Bensilum for £6,000, the original cost of the hotel being £14,000.
Bensilum who ran the hotel with his wife Nellie, built The Athenaeum in 1894.
Owners and Licensees:
1875 – 1890 | George Coppin – licensee John Crawford |
1890 – 1913 | Isaac Edward Bensilum |
1913 – 1921 | T E Hawkins |
1921 – 1923 | L Fitzgerald |
1923 – 1953 | L De Vine |
1953 – 1960? | N & G Fernhead |
1960 - 1990 | tbc |
1996 - current | Di Pietro Family |
Source: The Continental Hotel
It was on the toss of a coin - a choice between Australia and America - that Coppin sailed from Sussex on the Templar, arriving in Sydney in 1843 with his partner, Maria Watkins Burroughs, where he was to perform at the Royal Victoria Theatre on Pitt Street.
Coppin briefly owned the Clown Hotel, directly opposite the theatre, which failed as Sydney's first permanent musical entertainment venue, before he moved south.