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There are no signs that the Newtown Hotel will re-open by the end of the year, despite other media reports to this effect, licensee David McHugh told SX this week.
McHugh of McHugh Holdings said that he recently won a court challenge by the landlords Newtown Colonial Hotel Pty Ltd over the ownership of the licence and that the parties were still in discussions about the hotel’s future.
“We’re now just in a position where we’ll be in discussions with the landlord to see if the licence goes back in [the Newtown Hotel] or if it gets transferred somewhere else,” he told SX. “We’re hoping anywhere between now and July that some decision will be made.”
Last year the popular gay venue closed its doors suddenly when the parties were unable to reach agreement over upgrades to the property.
No guarantees can be made about the hotel’s future at this stage, and any suggestion otherwise is “misleading”, McHugh asserted.
“What it boils down to is the landlord should own the licence – i.e. buy it off us, or we should buy the property, because that’s the only way the Newtown Hotel can remain the way it is: for the licence to stay there and for the building to be upgraded. We have to wait and see what happens.”
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