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The owners of the Captain Cook Hotel have no immediate plans to rename the Dunedin building.
Noel Kennedy, one of three directors of Orari Street Properties Investments Ltd which owns the building, said while Mike McLeod was free to change the name of his music venue — The Cook — he did not have the power to change the name of the building.
This meant while Mr McLeod's venue, which is housed upstairs, could soon get a new name, the name of the building and the signs outside could remain.
Mr Kennedy said talk of the name change came as a surprise to the owners and there were no immediate plans to discuss changing the building's name.
The name of historic pub and music venue began receiving flak in the wake of Black Lives Matter marches and a global movement to remove public statues as a protest against systematic racism.
Mr Kennedy said he had no strong feelings either way on the name change, but the issue had never come up previously with owners.
He had not thought of Captain Cook as racist and believed he was an "icon of his time".
However, he said he was not fully informed about the topic.
Despite having no immediate plans to change the name of the building, Mr Kennedy said Mr McLeod was free to change the name of his venue.
"We support whatever Mike McLeod wants to do with his business."
Mr McLeod previously told the Otago Daily Times he had control only over the name of the music venue, but some reporting has suggested his decision could signal the end of the Captain Cook Hotel name.
"I will have a conversation with the landlords about what they want to do about that, but ultimately that is something for them to think about.
"I know it is a historic building and I do not know if there are any issues there, so I am just changing the name of my music venue," he said.