The Republic Bar is on the hunt for a new operator, with the building’s new owners planning to keep the North Hobart institution as a pub and entertainment venue.
The Republic was one of seven Hobart venues that closed in July when the Pub Banc Group collapsed into voluntary administration.
John Blacklow, the Hotel, Motel and Business Sales Consultant at Elders Real Estate Hobart, said the building was bought as an investment after the closure and its owners have engaged the firm to find a tenant.
He said there had been earlier offers that “haven’t quite met the mark”.
“There’s a lot of bargain hunters out there,” Blacklow told Pulse.
He said some bidders were “firing in pretty low ball offers”, which the agency was not interested in.
“We are talking with some parties at the moment, so it is ongoing,” he said.
Blacklow said the owners were “very flexible with the lease that they want to offer parties” and would put on a new roof within the next couple of months.
He said the ideal tenant would have a strong background in pubs or entertainment and would likely carry out some refurbishment themselves.
Blacklow said “it’ll be kept as a pub”.
He said a pub was the building’s “highest and best use” and that “there is a lack of entertainment venues in Hobart at the moment”.
Blacklow said a new tenant could change the name, but he expected the next operator would probably keep it because Republic Bar was the name most people knew.
The pub first opened as Rose Hotel House in 1831 and later became the Rose & Crown. It was remodelled in Art Deco style and renamed the Empire Hotel in 1931, keeping that name until the mid-1990s when it became the Republic.
Labor’s shadow hospitality minister Luke Edmunds described the Republic as “an icon of the entire state” after it closed in July.
The Pub Banc Group’s other closed venues include Cargo Bar, Jack Greene, Post Street Social, Observatory Bar and Franklin Wharf.
Blacklow said anyone interested in leasing the Republic could contact him or James Black at Elders.
