Business
9 June, 2024
Moves afoot to reopen pub
THE management of the Raintrees Shopping Centre at Manunda is confident that the Raintrees Tavern and BWS drive-in will reopen under new owners.
The Endeavour Group has announced it is closing the two businesses at the end of the month.
Centre manager Sheila Neil said she was attempting to lease both sites.
She said there had been some interest and she was hopeful of the businesses re-opening soon.
A spokeswoman for ALH Hotels, part of Endeavour Group, said “after 20 years, we have made the difficult decision not to renew our lease of the Raintrees Tavern”.
“We would like to thank all our team members that have played a role at the Raintrees Tavern since June 2004.” The last day of trading is June 28.
It is understood the tavern was “not commercially viable” and, while the drive-in was profitable, its licence was attached to the tavern and could not be operated separately.
ALH is working with staff currently working at the Raintrees Tavern and the attached BWS to redeploy to other pubs and BWS stores throughout Cairns. The BWS bottle store within the shopping centre, next to the Woolworths supermarket, will remain open.
It is believed the 40 poker machines and the gaming and hotel licences are also for sale or could be surrendered to the government.
Pub baron Tom Hedley told Cairns Local News this week he was not one of the interested parties.
In other moves at the shopping centre, the Manunda Library will move into a new space inside this month.
The library will be relocated to level 1, (above the old Woolworths).
A council spokesman said to minimise disruption and facilitate the re-location, the library would be temporarily closed from today (Friday, June 7) for about two weeks to allow staff time to relocate materials to the new location.
The AEC confirmed it was moving into the old library space as well as adjacent areas.
A spokesman said the AEC’s office on Grafton St would not be closing or relocating. It will remain open. “Our lease in the Raintrees Shopping Centre is for a location we call an Outposted Centre, or OPC,” he said. The centres act as logistics hubs for the AEC and used for storage and distribution of materials for federal elections.
