Bankrupt high-flyer’s Kew pub is back on the market, again

One of the three Melbourne pubs swept up in the spectacular collapse of Jon Adgemis’ pub empire is back on the market again.

The Clifton Hotel on Kew Junction was controlled by the former KPMG high-flyer’s Public Hospitality Group. Adgemis collected a portfolio of 22 pubs, most of them in Sydney, before he was forced into bankruptcy last October owing $1.8 billion.

His affairs and playboy lifestyle came under forensic examination in the Federal Court in Sydney last week following his group’s disastrous implosion.

Last year, receivers listed the Kew hotel for sale at between $7 million and $8 million, but that was when the pub was still operating. It closed last year for maintenance and hasn’t reopened since.

Luckily, the two billboards above the roof, leased to 2031, are bringing in some cash.

HTL’s Scott Callow, Daniel Ryan and Andrew Jolliffe have the listing but declined to provide a price guide for the pub which is being offered on a freehold or leasehold basis. The venue features an open-plan kitchen with a wood-fired pizza oven, bars, a private boardroom/dining space and an outdoor terrace.

It’s across the road from the four-tower project that Orchard Piper and James Packer’s NPACT group are aiming to build on the former Leo’s Fine Food & Wine supermarket site.

Plans have been drawn up for a seven-level hotel to be built above the pub, but local laws now allow for up to 12 levels at the junction, so a property developer may be the likeliest buyer.

Records show Adgemis’ Public Hospitality Group paid $6.8 million for the pub in July 2021 and scored a high-profile tenant in Guy Grossi’s Puttanesca Osteria. But that was a short-lived venture.

The title shows three mortgages and five caveats over the property. The same number of mortgages and caveats cover another of Adgemis’ pubs, The Vine Hotel in Collingwood.

Last year, the shelf company which owned the empty pub in Collingwood appeared to have gone unnoticed by Adgemis’ corporate undertakers.

Records show Adgemis’ shell company, The Vine At Collingwood Pty Ltd, which paid $4.75 million in November 2021 for the hotel, was deregistered in May. The hotel must surely be next on the sales list?

The pub on the corner of Derby Street at 59 Wellington Street is next to Gurner’s Victoria & Vine apartment project. Sure there’s a fancy health club in there, but a pub downstairs is a no-brainer.

Some reports suggest Adgemis was trying to install a George Calombaris restaurant in the pub.