One man has bought two of Sydney‘s biggest bars in a matter of months as he seeks to widen his business operations.
Sam Arnaout bought the Cabramatta Hotel in west Sydney and the El Cortez Hotel in Canley Heights in a deal worth close to $200 million.
The property billionaire purchased the venues for his Iris Capital operation which describes itself as a ‘fully integrated development and hospitality group, driven by a passion for creating places people love’.
No exact dollar amount has been put on the sales as of yet but industry experts suggest that both were record-setting purchases in 2024.
HTL Property directors Andrew Jolliffe and Dan Dragicevich negotiated the sales of both hotels.
Mr Arnaout, who lives near Manly in the city’s east, is a former panel beater who gained his $2.5billion net worth by purchasing hotels and developing properties.
The Cabramatta Hotel and the El Cortez Hotel are the latest in a long line of properties that Mr Arnaout now owns.
Others include the Steyne Hotel which he purchased for $65million and the Ivanhoe Hotel which are both in Manly.
Billionaire property developer Sam Arnaout bought the El Cortez Hotel in Canley Heights, Sydney (pictured, the El Cortez)
This is Mr Arnaout’s second large purchase in a matter of months after he also bought the Cabramatta Hotel in west Sydney (pictured, the El Cortez)
Mr Arnaout now handles commercial and residential properties in both NSW and Queensland.
‘Whilst Iris Capital operates on a national hospitality and development footprint; large format Sydney suburban hotels remain very attractive to our company,’ he said.
The Cabramatta Hotel and the El Cortez Hotels have a combined 17,000sqm of commercial property which is ripe for development, Mr Arnaout added.
Redcape managing director Chris Unger, who formerly operated both hotels, said their sale will help his business going forward.
‘The divestments will provide Redcape with capital to continue its redeployment into other opportunities in line with the fund’s stated strategy,’ Mr Unger said.
Mr Dragicevich said the sale of the property was easy as it was already a well-known hotel.
He added the fact that both it and the Cabramatta are on two separate land holdings ‘adds materially to the additional use options from a development perspective’.
His colleague, Mr Jolliffe, said the sale of these latest hotels pushed Sydney hotel sales dollar value to $1billion in 2024 which is equal with the record set in 2022.
Both hotels cost close to $200million and industry experts suggest each deal was record-setting in 2024
