After lengthy negotiations, The Oaks at Neutral Bay is officially OFF the market.

By ANNA USHER

The Thomas family will remain behind the bar at The Oaks Hotel in Neutral Bay after a record-breaking $175m sale of the iconic watering hole fell through.

The iconic pub at 118 Military Road, owned by the family since 1975, was placed on the market almost two years ago through JLL.

But after a lengthy 18-month wait for the mystery local purchaser to arrange the finance needed to settle, the hotel’s general manager, Andrew Thomas, confirmed his family had taken the pub off the market and were in it for the “long haul”.

“We have been here since 1975 and are happy to retain it,” Mr Thomas told The Australian Financial Review on Tuesday.

“We’re undertaking a refresh and upgrade of some of the areas [of the hotel] ahead of spring and summer.”

Renowned for its beer garden and historic oak tree centrepiece, the pub sale attracted interest from Justin Hemmes, who eventually passed on acquiring the 2188 sqm site. At one stage there were wild local rumours Rick and Sarah Stein had purchased the blue-chip corner site.

Mr Thomas told the AFR he had never met the buyers but revealed they were a “local family in the area”.

As reported by Mosman Collective in 2022, the landmark watering hole was purchased by family patriarch David “Taffy” Thomas for just $230,000.

The eye-watering sale was originally due to settle in March last year. It included Taffy’s Sports Bar, Alala’s Cocktail Bar, Bar & Grill Restaurant, the famous beer garden, a gaming room with 30 poker machines, extensive first-floor function spaces and a high-end retail bottle shop.

“It is difficult to imagine any hotel in the country evoking as much emotion, brand heritage and rites of passage than the illustrious Oaks Hotel. It’s going to be a remarkably fulfilling asset for the next lucky generational owners,” JLL Senior Vice President Ben McDonald said when launching The Oaks marketing campaign in 2022.

The Financial Review reports an unconditional sales contract was signed and a deposit paid. Still, the buyers could not raise the funds needed to settle – a challenge made more complex by rising interest rates and softened trading conditions.