O'Keefe's Hotel for sale as owner of 45 years, Mike O'Keefe, reflects on the historic pub

And as much as he's enjoyed returning to help out in the pub he's owned since 1976, it wasn't always meant to be this way.

Mr O'Keefe planned to sell the circa-1850s building and business when the license expired at the end of 2019, but COVID was soon to arrive and scare off any potential investors.

There was only one solution: he had to take back the license himself.

"I tried to get it up and going again, but didn't plan on COVID being about," Mr O'Keefe said.

"Rather than leave it as it was, becoming more derelict, or not as good as it should be, and just walking away and trying to sell a broken down hotel, I wanted to get it back up and running and hopefully have a good hotel to sell."

With much of COVID now in the past, O'Keefe's Hotel and business was finally able to be placed on the market last week with offers over $1.5 million invited.

The hotel has only had two owners for at least the past century - the O'Neill family, who bought it as the Caledonian Hotel, renamed it the Belfast Hotel in 1915 to reflect their Irish heritage, then the Union Club Hotel in the 1930s as a compromise with the Scottish license holder, before Mr O'Keefe bought it in 1976.

Mr O'Keefe took great pleasure in running the Union Club Hotel in the early years, but there was one problem: the name.

"Too many people wouldn't come in because they thought they had to be a member of the union or the club. My father would tell them, 'you can come in, it's an ordinary hotel'," he said.

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"But one day he said to me, you've got to change the name. Too many people aren't coming in.

"[Local architecture historian] Eric Ratcliff said to me: change it to 'O'Keefe's'. So we changed it in April, 1984."

The pub had a good reputation for food, which Mr O'Keefe wanted to build upon, so he opened Burgundy's Restaurant in one of the front rooms. The Burgundy Room remains to this day, with older clientele still requesting to dine there to reminisce about old times.

Mr O'Keefe ran the hotel for 13 years before deciding to pursue his passion for yachting and travel.

O'Keefe's Hotel was leased out, and he took to the seas, completing the Sydney-Hobart multiple times, the Darwin Ambon Yacht Race, crossing the Atlantic and spending many months sailing around South East Asia.

Meanwhile, the pub forged a reputation as being an honest venue for the every day punter.

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Mr O'Keefe said it had been an enjoyable few years back in charge from 2019, but now into his 80s, he was ready to retire for a second time.

"There's been a lot of changes. Some of my old customers who are still about and still live in Launceston area like to come in and reminisce," he said.

"I've enjoyed getting to know the younger people too and the way the world has changed. The hotel world has changed a lot over the 45 years."

From when it first opened as the Caledonian Vines Vaults in the 1850s, through its years as the Belfast, Union Club and O'Keefe's, the corner of George and York streets has always been a busy local watering hole.

But for how much longer?

Mr O'Keefe said the building's heritage listing limited the exterior works that could occur, but it was up to the new owner as to whether it remained a pub, or became something else.

Mark Elmer started as a bouncer at O'Keefe's in 1990, then returned as manager recently, continuing his association with the venue.

"I love the old place," he said.

"It's one of those older pubs that resisted modernisation over the years. A lot of people get that feel when they come in.

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"There's always the potential for a new publican to come in and do something like live entertainment or bands, it just needs a new set of eyes, ideas and a cash injection, probably some paint around the outside."

Hotels once dominated the street corners throughout central Launceston, but one by one, they have sold and been converted into shops, housing or other uses.

The building has already attracted plenty of interest given its location, and the rarity of it being on the market.

Mr Elmer said that running a profitable old-fashioned pub was a lot easier in the past than in 2021.

"There's people with fond memories of O'Keefe's that'd like it to stay as a hotel, but in reality it could be that it simply can't continue as it is," he said.

"It really would need a bit of a refurbishment or rebranding to make it into a really profitable pub. There's a lot of competition around town."

Although external alterations are off the table, there could be potential for significant internal works. Mr Elmer said he would not be surprised if a developer snapped it up to turn into more inner-city housing.

"But I'd love to see it stay as a pub," he said.

And if it doesn't sell, the beers are expected to keep flowing at O'Keefe's.

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