Landmark pub to go

A $2.5 MILLION multi-level development is planned for Main Street in Greytown where the 120-year-old Club Hotel now stands.
Masterton property developer Trevor Pearce said he is involved with a group that this month bought the Club Hotel from immediate past owners Bruce Meek and Philip Archibald, and an application to demolish the two-storey building has been lodged with South Wairarapa District Council.
The Club Tavern, which first opened for business as the Club Hotel in November 1886, is also known as the 'Bottom Pub' and is now standing vacant.
Mr Pearce said the building project proposed for the site once vacant is to cost about $2.5 million, although resource consent applications will not be made until after architectural plans are finalised over the next eight weeks.
"We are proposing a major development on the site that will remain much in keeping with the character of the town and the theme of the township. We were still scratching around with proposals the day before Christmas but we hope to make significant progress early in the New Year."
Mr Pearce said a concept plan features traveller's accommodation or ownership units for the site that are "more than a single level building of a quasi-commercial nature".
"It is an absolutely worthwhile investment risk and will be something a little bit different for Greytown."
Mr Pearce also holds interests in The White Swan hotel and restaurant ? a former railway building shifted from Lower Hutt to Greytown and opened in 2003, the Tulloch Lodge Country Hotel in Masterton that was expanded last year from a restaurant bar to include accommodation, and the almost 140-year-old Royal Hotel in Featherston.
He said there are also refurbishment plans for the entire first floor of the Royal Hotel ? now under management and "up and running" as a bar ? that will be completed by February or March.
"There will be traveller's accommodation that carries a tariff you would expect for Featherston that will offer six or seven superior ensuite rooms," he said.
"The redevelopment will round the Royal out to its deserved status as a true landmark property in Featherston."