The Griff Hotel had a colourful history but has been shut for several years. Photo: Oliver Jacques.
Armidale pub baron Jim Knox has sold the Griffith Hotel/Motel, a 101-year-old venue on the corner of Yambil and Kooyoo streets, which includes an operational 12-room accommodation business as well as a pub and restaurant that hasn’t been open for several years.
Mr Knox bought the site best known as ‘The Griff’, along with The Gem Hotel, in 2014. He then purchased the nearby Area Hotel for $8 million in 2019. He has now offloaded all three venues in the past three years, as he shifts his business interests back to his Northern Tablelands homebase.
He sold the Area Hotel to local entrepreneur Trent Middleton for $30 million in 2024 and the Gem (along with its Bull & Bell Steakhouse) to former Wallaby international Bill Young for $50 million in 2025. He continues to own irrigation equipment supplier Watertek Griffith and several pubs in Armidale and Moree.
The buyer of the Griffith Hotel/Motel has not been disclosed but it’s understood to be a local who owns other pubs in the Riverina.
The property comes with a hotel licence and six poker machine licences, which were leased to the nearby Area Hotel after a supreme court battle in 2023.
‘The Griff’ was built in 1925 as one of the first pubs in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and quickly became a popular meeting spot in the town. It’s perhaps best known as the site of Australia’s first political assassination, where Liberal Party candidate and furniture salesman Don Mackay was gunned down in the carpark in 1977. His body was never found.
The original building was demolished in 1973 and it was rebuilt within the next two years.
“My wife Ruth and I had the first wedding reception held in the new building on 23 August 1975,” local historian John Robinson said.
“The new site wasn’t as impressive as the old venue, which had a verandah all the way around the corner.”
The original Griffith Hotel in 1973, before it was demolished. Photo: Warren Murray/Old Griffith NSW Album.
Bottleshop Dan Murphy tried to set up an outlet at the site in 2022, but was blocked by the state alcohol regulator, which claimed having another liquor retailer would worsen the domestic violence rate in the town.
The recent sale of the Griffith Hotel/Motel was managed by accommodation and pub specialist real estate agency HTL Property, which said the transaction was arranged privately before the property was advertised publicly.
The property sits on a 4377 sqm block in a visible spot in the middle of Griffith’s CBD. In its current layout, the buildings on the site provide about 2389 sqm of rentable space.
HTL Property said a key part of the sale was an approved redevelopment plan that could turn the site into a mixed hospitality and retail complex. The plan allows for:
- a large liquor store (1135 sqm)
- a hotel pub and restaurant (387 sqm)
- another small retail shop (152 sqm)
- keeping the existing 12-room motel
- a manager’s residence
- about 50 ground-level car spaces.
The zoning for the land is flexible, meaning there are no strict limits on building height or size, which gives the owner many options for future development.
Pub baron Jim Knox rarely speaks to media but provided an insight into his plans in an interview with the Australian Financial Review after he sold the Gem Hotel in 2025.
“I have been a long-term investor in Griffith and the Riverina, with our irrigation and civil earthmoving operations, and it is just a town that never goes backwards,” he said.
“We have slowly been working towards moving our business interests back to the Northern Tablelands, where we live. That is what prompted the sale last year of the Area Hotel.”
Original Article published by Oliver Jacques on Region Riverina.
