PSS Ventures Ltd applied to Dunedin’s district licensing committee in October for a liquor licence at its planned new tavern Lord of Drinks, at 1 Great King St.
Committee secretary Kevin Mechen yesterday confirmed the company had withdrawn its application after a hearing was scheduled for next week.
PSS Ventures co-director Sandip Bharati said the application was withdrawn because they "didn't have that much patience to go to the committee and do all those stuff [sic]".
"Maybe I might be wrong, but our expectation ... was it won't be that much hassle."
They had been in talks with the landlord to lease the building if granted a liquor licence, Mr Bharati said.
Lord of Drinks was planned to operate as a pub from about 5pm-10pm, turning into a club on Friday and Saturday nights.
"Obviously we were targeting the Dunedin market, which is mostly students ... students, and all the local public as well."
Asked why the application was called to a hearing, Mr Bharati said he had a "large email" with "lots of reasons".
"There's not one reason because there are lots of reasons, actually."
Those reasons included the pub’s proximity to the bus hub, issues to do with health and safety, as well as their experience, he said.
The company would now look to take the venture to Christchurch, which was their "secondary plan if things didn’t work out here".
"It was quite [a] good amount of investment down here in Dunedin ... we would have created some jobs down here."
Committee chairman Colin Weatherall confirmed they received two public objections and the three reporting agencies were all "likely" to oppose the Lord of Drinks application.
The site at 1 Great King St has sat vacant for years and was formerly home to The Break bar.
That bar closed in September 2015 following a litany of issues including Mongrel Mob connections, high staff turnover and an inability to stick to licensing rules.
At least two other bars were proposed at the site since then, until plans for a five-storey 20-unit apartment development by Trapezium Ltd were publicised in early 2022.
Co-director Lawrence Ling, the building’s landlord, said they pre-sold about half of the planned units within six months.
But building costs had since risen about 30%-40% and it was "just not viable for us to continue that project any more", Mr Ling said.
"We just left it in the hope that the building costs would go down to start building."
The lease had been advertised for the past year and he hoped the site could be used as an office space for companies working on the new Dunedin hospital, Mr Ling said.
