St Bathan's historic Vulcan Hotel. Photo by Colin
Williscroft.
The future of St Bathan's historic Vulcan Hotel should be
clearer after a meeting this weekend.
The company that owns the 1880s pub, Vulcan Hotel Ltd, is
holding its annual meeting on Sunday, and one of its
directors, Brian Turner, of Oturehua, said while a final
decision on whether it would be sold was unlikely yet, "we
should get a good steer on it".
Although he did not want to pre-empt any decision made at the
meeting, Mr Turner said it would not surprise him if the pub
was sold "quite soon".
"In all likelihood, it will be put up for tender in the near
future."
Vulcan Hotel Ltd leases the building to publicans Jude and
Mike Kavanagh, who have run the business for about nine
years.
If the property was put up for tender, what happened to the
lease would be decided then, Mr Turner said.
"At the moment, they are on a short-term lease."
He was not concerned that the recent listing of the hotel as
a Category 1 historic place, by the New Zealand Historic
Places Trust (NZHPT), would harm any potential sale.
"It wouldn't make any difference. Sooner or later the
Historic Places Trust would have got around to doing what
it's done.
"They came and had a yarn with a couple of us and they are
more interested in the maintenance and welfare of the place.
They seem to understand that old buildings will need to be
upgraded to some extent at some time, otherwise they'll fall
down."
NZHPT Otago/Southland area manager Owen Graham said the
hotel's registration corrected an administrative oversight
from the mid-1980s, "when some paperwork got lost". He said
buyers of the hotel would not be disadvantaged by its
listing.
"It's an acknowledgement that it's a significant heritage
building. It's the highest recommendation we can give.
"Whether we had registered it or not, it's listed in the
Central Otago District Council's district plan, so any
changes anyone wished to make to the building would have been
referred to us anyway."
Vulcan Hotel Ltd was incorporated in 1987 by people concerned
the pub would be closed and its licence used elsewhere.
- colin.williscroft@odt.co.nz
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