Owner Roch Sullivan said the Ancient Briton was steeped in the history of Central Otago.
Built in 1863, the Ancient Briton was first popular in the early gold mining days, before the pastoralisation of the region saw it become a favourite for farmers and farm workers.
Throughout that time, it had also been the home of the Otago Central Curling Club, Mr Sullivan said.
A fire that broke out overnight in early December, 2019, gutted the interior of the hotel, leaving the front facade and a separate accommodation building undamaged.
Mr Sullivan ran the hotel himself after he purchased it in 2004, before leasing it to publicans Adrian Hood and Jan Rutherford in 2013.
The couple, who own the nearby Royal Hotel, still hold the lease on the accommodation building, which Mr Hood said was very busy at the moment with the New Zealand Open taking part at the Naseby Indoor Curling Rink.
Mr Sullivan said he engaged an engineer and architect after the 2019 fire to draw up plans to return the hotel to a similar version of itself.
Other commitments meant he had decided to put the building and land up for sale.
"Our desire would be to find someone who wants to bring it back for the community," he said. "It’s an important part of the community and it is the home of the Otago Central Curling Club."
One "blessing" from the fire was that the front of the building only experienced smoke damage, so a lot of curling memorabilia was saved, Mr Sullivan said.
Otago Central Curling Club president Pete McMillan said he hoped the hotel would be restored to its former state.
The building sits on 2577sqm of freehold land, and the facade has a Category 2 historic listing.
