10 Jul 2023
Words
Grantlee Kieza Resort News
A $10 million hit for Glenn Millar
There are very few brokers who understand management rights like Glenn Millar, certainly not to the degree needed to be so great in such a specialist field. This month we talk with New Zealand-born Glenn who has been a proud resident of the Sunshine Coast for more than 30 years.
He is one of the most prominent figures in the management and letting rights industry, and Glenn reveals that right now he has a business under contract that will fetch a record price for management rights on the Sunshine Coast.
ResortBrokers’ longest-serving broker, Glenn has become a Sunshine Coast institution in the sector. Since joining ResortBrokers in 2005, Glenn has established himself as one of Australia’s premier management rights brokers, particularly in the premium end of the market.
He has had more than 40 years of experience in the hotel and resort sector and says he lives and breathes management rights, focusing on high-end, high netting businesses. This includes properties that have additional components such as restaurants, day spas, and conference facilities.
You’ve been with ResortBrokers for 18 years and chalked up $350 million worth of sales. That’s a pretty good inning.
Yes, and I’ve got roughly another $30 million under contract at the moment. I’ve settled about 200 management rights businesses over the years so that works out better than one a month. It’s something like selling one every 25 days or so.
Where is home?
I live in Cooroy. It’s very beautiful here and it’s been home for 30-odd years. I look after the Sunshine Coast for ResortBrokers along with my colleague Chenoa Daniel. But I also have clients all over the country. I try not to do too much work outside my area, but I’m just selling one management rights business in Broome in Western Australia now. That is selling in June. I’ve sold three others in Broome over the years. We’ve just listed a $5 million property on the Sunshine Coast, and a $6 million one - they are at Maroochydore and Mooloolaba.
So, you could say we are pretty busy with work at the moment. You’ve sold most of Noosa’s premier management and letting rights businesses over the years, and some more than once?
Yes. I sold Noosa Quays, Noosa Pacific, Maison in Hastings Street, Tingirana in Hastings Street, On the Beach in Hastings Street - I’ve sold that property twice. I also sold Saks in Hastings Street, Noosa Harbour Resort, Noosa Crest, and the Rise Apartments.
What made you move to the Sunshine Coast in the first place?
I was living in Sydney, and I came up on holiday. I was blown away by the prices for land up here, after living in Sydney I couldn’t believe it. I thought that they must have missed a couple of noughts. So, while I was up here on holiday, I bought five acres at Cooroy. That was in 1991.
I’ve got two boys, one is in the auto industry, he sells cars in Noosa and my other son is in the mining industry in Mackay. However, my wife Maggie is my rock and keeps me well grounded.
What’s your background?
Since starting out in New Zealand in my early 20s, I’ve been involved in the hospitality, hotel and resort business. I’ve done everything from being the catering manager on New Zealand ski fields to being the manager on the Milford Track, to running large hotels.
I come from the top of the North Island, at a place called Kaitaia. I left there when I was 12 and moved to Auckland, and later I backpacked around Australia for a couple of years in the early 1970s. Then I joined the Tourist Hotel Corporation in New Zealand in the mid-1970s, and I worked in a number of hotels there. I came to Australia in the late 1970s and worked with the Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation, mainly in food and beverage. I spent about five years in the recruitment industry, but I was still focused on the hospitality and tourism sectors in that job.
Management rights is a very specialised field. How did you get into the business of selling them?
I was working for a company that specialised in distressed hotels and the first three that I worked with were under management rights. That was in the 1990s.
One of the hotels was in Port Douglas, one was in Airlie Beach, and one was on the Sunshine Coast. I worked with that company for several years. In 2005 I had a chance meeting with somebody from ResortBrokers and that resulted in me starting with them.
Even though your focus is on the Sunshine Coast, you still sell management rights around Australia, so you must have built up some strong contacts over the years?
I have good relationships with several hotel groups. The first management rights business I sold in Broome was to Oaks Hotels and Resorts, and the second one I sold was to Mantra. I’ve got great long-term relationships with both of those groups. Most of the stuff I’ve sold away from the Sunshine Coast has been through contacts of mine that I’ve built up over the years and who know me from previous work. I’ve also sold management rights in the ACT and in Victoria. I’m selling on a property this month in Canberra. It’s a rare sale because there are very few buildings under management rights in the ACT.
I sold that in conjunction with our NSW agent. It’s his area but he’s not that familiar with management rights so he brought me in on the sale and I handle the management rights side of it.
You’ve won ResortBroker’s Management Rights Broker of the Year five times. That’s very impressive.
Yes, and I’m hoping that I’ll win it again this year. I won’t know until the end of July if anyone’s pipped me at the post but I’m confident. We’ve just settled Breeze at Mooloolaba, and we now have under contract a business that will fetch a record price for management rights on the Sunshine Coast.
What price is that?
I can’t reveal the exact price now because it’s very confidential, but we’re talking in excess of $10 million. It’s an off-market sale - very confidential.
You’ve made some record sales before?
Alex Cook and I were appointed by the receivers to sell Soul at Surfers Paradise, and we sold the management rights to Mantra for $27.5 million. That was about six years ago. It’s a huge building with about 300 apartments. At the time it was the most prestigious building on the Gold Coast. I don’t think there have been many higher sales on the Gold Coast since then, but there are new properties going up all the time, and there are probably properties now that are worth more. I also sold Peppers in Hervey Bay to Oaks Resorts. That was another huge business.
Why do you think so many people are so passionate about the industry?
I think it’s a fantastic business model. The thing I really like is that management rights is a relationship business. You’ve got owners, you’ve got tenants, you’ve got committees, body corporates and you’ve got a business where you’re answering to everyone in the building, and you have to have strong relationships.
Run well, management rights are very profitable businesses.
You and Chenoa must also be busy organising the Sunshine Coast ARAMA functions?
Chenoa is sort of the chief organiser for ARAMA on the Sunshine Coast. She and I come up with the venues and help with sponsorship. We also run our own seminars. ARAMA is such a great aid to the industry. It’s an association that really helps people in management rights, and I see it as essential. I’ve been a long-term ARAMA member and I’m very much a supporter of what they do.
What do you do when you’re not selling management rights?
I try and get away for two overseas trips a year. I’ve just come back from two weeks in Hawaii, and I went to Bali before that. Being a broker is a seven-day-a-week business and I think it’s important to have a break every so often and recharge the batteries. I’ve been all over the world but one of my favourite destinations would have to be Lake Tahoe, up in northern California, and the nearby wine district of the Napa Valley. It’s absolutely beautiful up there.
