Pauline Hanson buys former Maitland pub premises - and won't completely rule out her return to fish and chips
Pauline Hanson has bought former hotel premises on the main street in the NSW Hunter town of Maitland.
The One Nation party founder has bought the former Exchange Hotel property in partnership with a business partner. It sold late last year through Rhonda Nyquist at PRD Nationwide for about $449,000.
While the 1940s P&O-style premises has no liquor licence and there is ‘‘no intention’’ to seek one, Hanson says she'd briefly considered the premises for returning to her days flinging fish and chips in Ipswich.
‘‘I’ve got to say the thought crossed my mind,’’ she says.
‘‘There’s always room for a good takeaway, and I can’t believe the price of a piece of fish now.’’
But neither will she completely rule it out.
At this stage Hanson says the downstairs part of the old pub willbe leased out commercially.
Located on the southern end of the mall, the 300-square-metre ground-floor premises with 70-square-metre cellar are listed for lease at $28,000 a year through PRD Nationwide Hunter Valley. There is a current antique shop occupant for some of the premises.
“Let’s see what happens down there first,” Hanson told The Maitland Mercury.
“It would need a lot of work done. At the moment, no, I have got a lot of other things on my plate.”
She says the business partners have plans to renovate the building and lease the upper level as residences.
The former 1940s Tooths hotel dates back to 1866 and closed in the early 1990s.
Hanson says she invested in Maitland because she believes it is a growing city.
“I think that end of town, although it was dying in the past, I think in time it will come good slowly,” she says. “I think it has a lot of potential.”
Hanson said yesterday that the pair had already started advertising for a commercial tenant to lease the building’s ground floor, which sits on the corner of Lee and High streets.
Maitland mayor Peter Blackmore welcomed Hanson’s investment in the city’s centre.
Hanson says she chose the former hotel after a search ‘‘over the years’’ and based her decision it on Maitland’s growth and the potential to add units to the site.
She says she also considered selling her bayside home for the Coalfields.
‘‘I’m enjoying it [in Port Stephens] but I have come from the land – I have had 500 hectares around me – and I’d like to go back to that,’’ Hanson says.
