A ONCE-GRAND Great Western Highway-fronting pub is looking for a new owner - again.
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Closed since 2016 and once in line for an upmarket redevelopment into a Radisson hotel, the Imperial Hotel at Mount Victoria and its neighbouring motel have increasingly become an eyesore for those travelling the road.
Vandals and squatters have regularly broken in, setting fires and damaging interiors.
The awning on the corner of the highway and Station Street has long been propped up with metal poles.
After a failed expression of interest campaign by Savills in 2024, agent Peter Poulos of Theo Poulos at Katoomba has now been given the gig.
At an asking price of between $2.9 million and $3.2m, new owners will get an 1878 pub with 28 guestrooms, 12 with ensuites, foyer lounge, office, commercial kitchen, dining room, ballroom, public bar, lounge and gaming room.
The adjoining lot houses the Mount Victoria Motor Inn with 10 rooms, reception and manager's unit. It also comes with a development application to demolish and build a 39-room hotel.
But while the advertising suggests "anticipated demand for tourist accommodation" when the new western Sydney airport opens, it also warns: "Please note that both buildings have been vandalised and will need to be restored."
The buildings were bought in 2017 by Chinese-based One Pro Blue Mountains Pty Ltd for about $2.5 million.
Pub crawl
THERE'S many an historic pub or hotel along the Great Western Highway linking Sydney and the Central West.
The Donnybrook at South Bowenfels was once a gracious 1800s family home, according to the Lithgow Mercury.
The gargantuan Hydro Majestic dominates the road at Medlow Bath, but has no doubt been knocked around by the long-running construction of the duplication of the highway through the village.
The hotel recently applied to Blue Mountains City Council to put solar panels on its extensive roof, including the pavilion and the flat roof of the hotel, but not on the distinctive domed casino.
The bars have been closed in recent years at The Gearin, next to Katoomba Train Station, but it still offers accommodation, while the New Ivanhoe Hotel at Blackheath was in the one family for 45 years.
In 2013, when it was on the market, it was estimated that there were 25,000 vehicle movements past the Kelso Hotel, on Bathurst's outskirts, each day.
