Oldies-only plan for bar

A bar for oldies-only is on the cards if a New Plymouth landlord gets his way.

The owners of the Metro Plaza on Devon St West, housing the soon-to-close Phoenix Bar, say they are sick and tired of the trouble caused by young patrons.

"They run amok and they damage things," Paul Stanley said.

Damage had been done to the toilets and holes had been punched in gib walls.

Mr Stanley, who has owned the Plaza with wife Mary for five years, says the couple will not take on a younger person's establishment again.

"Older, middle-aged people are better because they hold their liquor and are not going to damage the place," he said.

Prior to the opening of Phoenix Bar, the same site housed the Outback Pub 'n Grub and before that The Miller Bar.

In August 2008 Outback Pub 'n Grub became the first in Taranaki to be shut permanently for breaching liquor laws.

At the time pub owner Greg Davis welcomed the move, saying Maori gangs and drunken teenagers had turned his dream of owning a bar into a nightmare with their late-night behaviour.

He took the unusual step of inviting the Liquor Licensing Authority to cancel his general manager's certificate.

Mr Stanley told the Taranaki Daily News he was looking for new tenants, although VTM Hospitality, the company which holds the liquor licence for The Phoenix, still had a lease agreement until August 2011.

"If we will be able to lease it to a prospective tenant that would cater to an older style clientele we would seriously consider it but it has to be a classy establishment."

The Stanleys bought the Plaza, formerly the Downtown Arcade midway through 2005.

At the time they were reportedly excited about the future of the building in light of plans by the New Plymouth District Council to open up Huatoki Stream.

Yesterday Mr Stanley said plans to link the coastal walkway through Huatoki Plaza, Metro Plaza and underneath Powderham St bridge to Sir Victor Davies Park had been put on the backburner.

"We are still wishing that it will go ahead but it's a matter of when can they do it, or if the plan is still there to do it."

- © Fairfax NZ News