Former publican Shane Norton has pulled the pin on buying the Omakau Commercial Hotel after six months of negotiations with the current owner.

The historic hotel, built by William Leask in 1898 has been closed for the past two years, and was an important meeting place for locals in the community - as well as providing accommodation for bikers on the Otago Central Rail Trail.

Shane wanted to try and save the pub for the community, but last Tuesday he let the sale and purchase agreement lapse with the Auckland owners, after several conditions couldn’t be met.

The pub has been seriously neglected over the years, but three weeks ago after heavy rain, it became more clear that the water leakage was worse than he realised.

A north and south wall are completely rotten, and after the heavy rain water was leaking into the back of the dining room. There is also serious water damage in the McKinnon stables.

Realising it then made better business sense to try and lease the hotel off the owners rather than buy it - given its raft of problems, he continued negotiations.

“In its current state the building is uninsurable and I have been advised to walk away.

"It's been six months of time, effort, money and hope, but unfortunately I haven't been able to get it over the line."

Shane said it was disappointing the owners didn’t want to look after the pub and spend money on fixing it, but he has no regrets.

“You have to try these things. If I hadn’t done it, nobody else would’ve.”

The Omakau Hotel has been on the market for the past two years, and includes a three-bedroom house, historic buildings and sub-dividable land.

The big question many people might be asking is, why would someone want to take on a dilapidated pub with all of its problems?

Shane said under the Central Otago District Council’s new Plan Change 19, the land that comes with the sale, out the back of the hotel, is now able to be subdivided into 400sqm sections.

But development contributions have also gone up, and he said each section would now cost $38,000 to subdivide - making it not worthwhile as a developer.

The hotel was original named Pomona House - after the Roman goddess of fruitful abundance, especially of orchard fruits.

The other option is for a group of investors in the community to try and buy the pub, similar to what has happened in Waikaka and Hunterville.

Shane said the community would need to find about $2 million to buy it, fix it up and subdivide the land off the back.

Meanwhile, he’ll go back to running the local radio station “Hospo is in my blood, and it goes hand in hand with radio.” 

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