One of Orange's best-known watering holes looks set to be given a new lease of life.
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The former Kelly's Rugby Hotel building on the corner of Lords Place and Moulder Street has been closed for two years although the bottle shop at the rear has continued to operate.
The exterior of the former hotel has just been repainted and refurbished.
The hotel and the bottle shop will operate as separate businesses with separate licences.
- Public notice for liquor licence change
The first steps have begun to separate the bottle shop onto a different liquor licence to the old hotel.
A notice in a doorway reveals there is a plan to create two businesses.
The 'notice of intention to apply for a new liquor licence or to apply for a change to an existing licence' said a new packaged liquor licence would be sought for the bottle shop, known as Orange Cellars.
"For administrative purposes the applicant proposes that the hotel and the bottle shop will operate as separate businesses with separate licences," it said.
"The applicant proposes to lodge a separate application to redefine the licensed area of the hotel to exclude the existing bottle shop."
It said the hotel would not sell packaged liquor.
Community feedback for the proposal is being sought through Sydney law firm JDK Legal within 30 days of the notice on November 11.
Feedback would be used to create a Community Impact Statement as part of a liquor licence application.
Nicole Beath of JDK Legal said the company was seeking to separate the bottle shop from the hotel.
However, she said she could not comment on what was proposed for the hotel's future.
The public notice states the bottle shop would trade seven days a week until midnight Monday-Saturday and 11.30pm on Sundays.
"Consistent with the operation of the hotel bottle shop the proposed premises will offer convenient, modern and pleasant shopping facilities," it said.
The Central Western Daily has attempted to contact the owner and other parties for comment.
Last drinks at the hotel were consumed in October 2018.
It brought to an end a remarkable 96 years the hotel had been run by the same family, one of the longest in NSW.
Since Mary Kelly took over in 1922, and even now two years after it closed, the pub opposite Wade Park is known as Kelly's.
The hotel started as the Carriers Arms Hotel but the original building burnt down.
The current building was constructed in the 1890s and the name was changed to the Rugby Hotel in 1898.
Being so close to Wade Park has provided many sporting links between the two venues.
Sporting clubs had to find new homes and rooms for their memorabilia and history boards when the hotel closed.
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