Merivale's Justin Hemmes pays $37.05 million for Tennyson Hotel

Merivale boss Justin Hemmes has paid $37.05 million for The Tennyson Hotel in Sydney's south.

The auction conducted by auctioneer Damien Cooley for Ray White attracted 250 people including the who's who of the pub industry.

The Tennyson, whose design is illustrative of a Sidney Warden-designed inter-war functionalist structure, fetched a record hammer price for hotels. 

The Ray White Hotels Asia Pacific director Andrew Jolliffe listed the Top 100 gaming property, The Tennyson Hotel at Mascot.

 Set on Botany Rd, the Tennyson Hotel is a popular hotel with 30 gaming machines.

"Notwithstanding the latest ranking at 87 in NSW, the hotel requires an upgrade," Jolliffe advised. 

The leading hotel architect Paul Kelly has designed a renovation which has DA approval.

"Only a very small number of Top 100 gaming hotels have changed hands over the past few years," commented Jolliffe.

"The reality is that this should be a Top 50 Gaming hotel," he added.

The two-level large format hotel is on the busy Botany Road and High St corner.

Its allotment is 1400sqm.

Jolliffe's client, JDA Hotels recently contemplated an unsolicited offer, advised John Feros of JDA Hotels.

The hotel, even in its currently unrenovated state, attracts in excess of $8m in annual receipts from predominantly high gross profit margin revenue centres.