Michael Dixon’s Athena Hospitality has acquired one of Queensland’s top 70 gaming venues, the Central Tavern in Burpengary

A leading Australian hotelier’s private company has made its Queensland debut, with the acquisition of a pub north of Brisbane. Michael Dixon’s Athena Hospitality has acquired one of Queensland’s top 70 gaming venues, the Central Tavern in Burpengary. Mr Dixon and his father Bruce founded food and beverage focused Dixon Hospitality in 2012 and built it up from a small Victorian pub group to a brand with dozens of venues around Australia. It was rebranded as Australian Venue Co and last year they sold most of it to American global investment company KKR. The company then went into a complicated joint venture with Wesfarmers subsidiary Coles bringing well over 160 venues under its control. The deal was struck by HTL Property’s Glenn Price, Brent McCarthy and Dan Dragicevich on behalf of well known hotelier Michael Lucas. The agents would not be drawn on price but industry sources say it would have sold for around $7m. Mr Price said it was strategic acquisition by Mr Dixon’s Athena Hospitality. “The tavern is in a very busy shopping precinct and as an historically consistent performer, ranked in the state’s top 70 gaming venues, provides the successful investors with a robust set of very reliable revenue streams,” he said. Mr McCarthy said the tavern was well placed having undergone a recent multimillion-dollar renovation, the Tavern has a 70 space car park and is adjacent the Woolworths anchored Burpengary Shopping Centre. “Assets such as this with clearly identifiable sources of revenue, two detached bottle shops and proximate visitation levers are attractive to a range of investors; including those from interstate who were ultimately successful in acquiring the asset,” he said.