TWO notable Mornington Peninsula properties are for sale after decades of family ownership.
The former Arthurs Hotel and four adjoining blocks perched on top of Arthurs Seat Road is for sale, after failing to sell three years ago.
Further east, the 340 hectare Boneo Park equestrian centre and surrounding wetlands is also on the market.
The hotel closed in 2020, at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and was passed in at auction in mid-2021 after bidding reached $11 million, but short of the reserve.
The property on five titles over 7254 square metres is opposite the Arthurs Seat Eagle gondola lift.
Nearby residents said they were looking forward to a hotel opening again, as it was once a thriving destination that brought life to the region.
Kylie Greer from Save Our Seat – a group formed to protest the development of a 43 hectare quarry on the north face of Arthurs Seat – said she hoped someone with “deep pockets” would buy the hotel to renovate and reopen it.
“It’s been closed for the past three years, so it would be great to have a local hotel again and somewhere to get a beer,” she said.
Greer said the almost 100-year-old hotel was full of history and had a ballroom on the ground floor that few people knew about.
The hotel, which has panoramic views of the Port Phillip, has had at least two lessees but has not changed ownership in 22 years.
Boneo Park is also for sale, after decades of ownership by the McNaught family.
The McNaught’s are the original developers of the 340ha property and have been custodians of the wetlands and environment, including placing 200 hectares of the land under a Trust for Nature covenant.
The equestrian centre was developed out of swampland and grazing land about 17 years ago by Rob McNaught, founder of trekking company Peregrine Adventures (which he sold in 2005 and is now part of Intrepid Travel).
McNaught had been living nearby, but bought the original Tootgarook swamp landholding (known then as the Hiscock Estate) in 2001 from the Hiscock family (which had owned it since the 1920s) after it was passed in at auction.
The park, which has held equestrian events and attracted many high-profile riders from around the world, is expected to be sold for more than $30 million.
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 28 February 2023
