Lavington's Northside Hotel sold to Harvest pub group for $16.2 million

The Lavington hotel formerly known as The Garrison has been sold to Harvest Hotels Group for $16.2 million in a deal confirmed late this week.

Harvest purchased Brady's Railway Hotel in October last year for $9.6 million.

The Northside Hotel has been owned by the Burke family for 16 years with father Peter's son Matthew an Australian rugby union great from the 1980s, who played 23 Tests for the Wallabies.

Matthew had no direct financial stake in the Northside.

Harvest also recently bought a pub on the NSW Central Coast at Woy Woy for $32 million.

The two-storey Northside was originally built on the corner of Urana and Union roads in 1938 and changed hands four times early in its history.

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Previous names included Continental, Sars and Macwhites before changing to the Garrison in the late 1960s.

The latest sale was handed by HTL Property, which was also involved in the sale of the Springdale Heights Tavern, also in Lavington, for more than $20 million earlier this year.

Springdale Heights was established by Graham and Bev Bosse and Mal and Maureen Hutchinson in 1988.

On the same day the Springdale Heights sale was revealed, another Albury landmark hotel, Sodens sold at auction for $4.5 million to leasees for the previous three years, Brendan Tracey and wife Lyndall Hutchinson.

Harvest Hotels Group is headed by Sydney-based publicans Chris Cornforth and Fraser Haughton.

'The Northside Hotel marries well with our existing Albury asset in the form of Brady's Railway Hotel' Mr Cornforth said.

'Scalable assets such as Northside align perfectly with our investment criteria.

"We will continue to add quality large format pubs in quality regional towns where we see opportunities for upside on a sustainable basis."

In addition to bar and meals areas, the Northside Hotel has 24 poker machines, 3am liquor licence and a bottle shop on the other side of Union Road.

HTL Property director Blake Edwards.said Harvest had been highly strategic in its recent hotel acquisitions.

"Material regional centre hotels like Northside are becoming rarer and rarer, and we are delighted to have delivered this outcome," he said.

Meanwhile, five bids were submitted for the purchase of the Mitta pub following the conclusion of an expressions of interest process ending on December 3.

It underwent a major refurbishment in 2013.

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