As the hospitality industry reels from what is hoped to be a temporary downturn, news has emerged pub industry patriarch Arthur Laundy is building no less than three new pubs.
A deal was recently secured to purchase the site of the former Log Cabin Hotel, overlooking the Nepean River at Penrith.
The pub was ravaged by fire in early March 2012, and proprietor Ross Sinclair fought alongside emergency personnel to save his beloved watering hole – seen as a landmark in the Penrith area.
But despite a gallant fight, the pub was lost. The cause was found to be an electrical fault in one of the ballroom downlights.
Later that year, after battling with insurance, he got permission to bulldoze and build a new venue from scratch, making the assertion the former structure was too difficult to rebuild.
A pub has been on the site since 1827, although the razed hotel was built and first granted a licence in 1939. It had swelled to encompass five buildings.
Despite a local movement calling to reproduce the Log in its former glory, reconstruction never came.
Buoyed by his recent runaway success building brand new suburban pubs, first at Marsden Park, opening last April, quickly followed by The Locker Room at Sydney Olympic Park, Laundy is making hay and new public houses where the sun is shining.
Without revealing too many details, Laundy says a worthy descendent is on the way in Penrith.
“We’ll be building a new hotel there,” he revealed today. “It’s a big one.”
Meanwhile, contracts have been signed for the Laundy Group to acquire two greenfield sites from Lendlease, at Jordan Springs – also in the Penrith LGA – and Calderwood, next to Albion Park in the Illawarra.
Stressing it’s too early to comment on the other sites, Laundy says he’s “excited about them” and flags particularly strong potential in Calderwood, with the development in that area.
Having spent in the region of $60 million building Marsden Park and The Locker Room, the Laundy Group has high expectations for the new old Log Cabin offering at Penrith.
“It’s well and truly underway with Council. We hope to have that open by the middle of next year.”
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