One last call for nightclub
Timaru’s main street nightclub will close its doors to customers early next month.
Factory Bar and Nightclub owner Nathan Simon, who has operated the Stafford St building as a nightclub for 10 years, said the last day of trade will be May 8.
He said there were several reasons for the closure of the business inside the 150-year-old building, bought by the Timaru District Council in 2018 for $385,000, as part of its early moves to create a heritage facility alongside the upgrade of the Theatre Royal.
‘‘The Timaru District Council took over my leases, and they are turning the building into a heritage hub; I could keep it going until Christmas, but I’m extremely busy in Wanaka [managing a construction business],’’ Simon said.
He said Covid-19 and regulatory and wages costs had affected the bottom line of the Timaru operation.
‘‘There have been wage increases, all that comes off the bottom line, while the costs have been going up, the turnover stayed the same, and decreased during Covid-19.’’
Simon has also operated hospitality
‘‘People don’t really go out and put money over the bar like they used to. We might still get 200 people in the bar, but they are not spending.’’ Nathan Simon
Factory Bar and Nightclub owner
venues in Nelson, Dunedin and Wanaka, with the Timaru operation the last to go.
Drinking habits had also changed, Simon said. ‘‘People don’t seem familiar now with just going out for a good session.’’
Preloading and drug culture had also changed the hospitality industry.
‘‘People don’t really go out and put money over the bar like they used to.
‘‘We might still get 200 people in the bar, but they are not spending.’’
Simon said live entertainment had been the highlight of his 10 years in Timaru.
‘‘We have been an outlet for musicians, DJs and live artists.’’
Simon said it had been fun but added ‘‘I think it is time to close it’’.
The building is in the council’s Draft District Plan as a Category A historic place, meaning it is ‘‘considered to have highly significant heritage value’’.
A project overview shows $23.8 million has been allocated in the 2018 to 2028 TDC Long Term Plan budget for the heritage facility.
In January, the council received a Christchurch-based firm Architectus’ design brief for the $23m project which said, in order for the project to go ahead, it would likely need to demolish buildings on 126 and 128 Stafford St and the former Olympia Hall at 31 Barnard St.
The Stafford St buildings sit between the Factory Bar and Nightclub and the Theatre Royal.
The council also bought the Royal Gardens restaurant building which neighbours the the nightclub, in February for $440,000.
A council spokesman, Stephen Doran, said there was not a firm timeline on the specific demolition of the buildings outside the main project timeline.
He said the first major works will be the demolition of the former Olympia Hall at 31 Barnard St which is behind the Theatre Royal.
Records show the building containing the nightclub, formerly known as Bar Xcel, and The Excelsior hails back to the days of traders, whalers and sailors.
Christened the Criterion at the end of the 19th century, it was one of the first bluestone buildings to be registered in Timaru.
The Excelsior was a contemporary of the Landing Services Building and, like most buildings of that era, was constructed in stone to conform to the bylaws introduced after the 1868 Stafford St fire, which wiped out all the weatherboard structures.