18 hours ago
Iconic heritage-listed Cardrona Hotel goes on the market
Heritage-listed Cardrona Hotel is going on the market.
Photo:
Supplied to RNZ
One of the country's most photographed pubs - and a fixture of the Central Otago landscape - is going on the market.
Expressions of interest open on Friday for the 162-year-old, heritage-listed Cardrona Hotel.
Cade Thornton, who has owned the pub with his partner Alexis and James and Fleur Jenneson since 2013, said the decision to sell was indescribably difficult.
The group decided it was time to step back and focus on their young families, he said.
"It's just such a friendly, happy place. It's a great environment to work and to be the custodian, the captain of that, is tremendously rewarding, and to see the place change in our time. It's defined my life, really."
The hotel on the Crown Range Road between Wānaka and Queenstown included a restaurant, year-round beer garden, and 17 ensuite hotel rooms sleeping up to 44 guests.
Its facade dated back to a now-vanished gold rush town that thrived in the 1860s, when Cardrona was a bustling settlement supporting thousands of Otago gold rush miners.
Cade Thornton said it employed 40-50 staff, and the hotel was often fully booked.
"The business is in really good stead. I've got some very long-term senior staff who love the pub and their jobs and their roles, and they want to see it through with the new owner," he said.
He said the hotel attracted people from all walks of life.
"We'll have guests arriving by helicopter, all dressed up for a nice meal, and then the local farmers will come in, leaving their gumboots by the door. I don't think there's any other place quite like it in New Zealand."
The hotel on the Crown Range Road between Wānaka and Queenstown included a restaurant, year-round beer garden, and 17 ensuite hotel rooms sleeping up to 44 guests.
Photo:
Supplied to RNZ
The Cardrona Hotel was being sold by private negotiation as a freehold going concern.
Thornton said the owners would not be publicly disclosing a price, although in 2010, prior to expansion works, it was valued at $3 - 4 million.
He hoped the next owner would have a "real passion" for the pub.
"Fifty percent of buying it would be that you'd have to love it. You couldn't just look at it as a business opportunity. You'd have to be passionate about the business, the pub, its history, its potential," he said.
"If someone's wanting it, who's got the means and the drive, I don't think they'd ever regret it," he said.
Expressions of interest were open from Friday, 5 July until Friday, 15 August.
