O&H passed in
The O&H Hotel at Warragul was passed in at auction on a vendor’s bid last Thursday.
The auction held on site attracted about 30 people but the only private bid made at $600,000 was quickly rejected and over ruled by the vendor bid of $1 million. No further bids were made. The two-storey building with accommodation on the upper level and an attached drivethrough bottle shop is on the site of Warragul’s first hotel built in 1875.
After it was destroyed by fire in 1888 a twostorey brick building replaced it and was named the Orient Hotel, a name it carried for 120 years before being re-branded as the O&H.
The current owners bought the property on two titles spread over 1074 square metres stretching from Queen St to Williams Square in 2015 but it closed its doors in February last year. It has been vacant since. The owners abandoned plans to redevelop most of the premises as apartments while possibly retaining some form of licenced premises on the ground floor.
Auctioneer Kevin O’Connor of CRE Brokers said the Commercial 1 zoned property had a Baw Baw Shire valuation of $1.485 million of which the land value was $1.076 million.
He said it was offered for sale as freehold including most chattels and fittings and had a current liquor licence.
He said two heritage and four development overlays on the property were not significant and the building was not listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.
Warragul Police are calling for witnesses to an incident outside Drouin Woolworths supermarket on Friday night. The incident occurred at 6.25pm. Police would like to speak to anyone who witnessed anything or may have footage of the incident.
If you have any information that may help investigations, contact Warragul Police (5622 7111).